


Through and Through

by call_me_assface_the_clown



Category: Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Anne is sick of Eddie's shit, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gender-Neutral Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Human Disaster Eddie Brock, M/M, Mentions of Pepper Potts - Freeform, Mild Smut, Other, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Slow Burn, Sort Of, Teen Groot (Marvel), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Top Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Venom Symbiote Takes Care of Eddie Brock, lots of head eating, mentions of Deadpool, symbrock
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23727577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/call_me_assface_the_clown/pseuds/call_me_assface_the_clown
Summary: Eddie thought the symbiote was dead, and grieved it every day until finally… it comes back. Eddie and Venom work things out and make a poor attempt to keep their blossoming relationship secret from Anne and her boyfriend, Dan. They also have mysterious dreams about this weird, fugly, symbiote guy (all my comic readers know who I'm talkin' bout). Also right as they're in danger the Avengers swoop in like "haha fuck you yer goin to jail son" and Eddie and Venom are like "no way this isn't legal." And they're like "well killing people isn't legal either." I promise it's going to be a lot dramatic than that.
Relationships: Dan Lewis/Anne Weying, Eddie Brock & Anne Weying, Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 47
Kudos: 318





	1. hello.

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like I would get my ‘monsterfucker’ card revoked if I didn’t write at least one fanfic about these two losers. Also, the first chapter is a little angsty, sorry. Also-also, I’m kinda mashing different things from the comics and the movie, so just a heads-up. Also-also-also, it's quarantine so I'll probably write a lot. I already have the first three chapters done.

The last thing he remembered was the scorching heat of the flames and then being surrounded in a blanket of cool, dark water. He remembers calling out to the symbiote as it left him. Although Venom was doing so to save him from the fire and debris, he’s never felt so vulnerable in his life.

Despite his mind running with questions and worries, he felt empty and alone. It was depressing. All that was left of his alien other were the memories of the short time that they had spent bonded together. He misses it.

Before he even opened his eyes he could tell where he was, just that thought alone hurt. If he had Venom, he would probably be eating whatever was left in his apartment, bickering with the symbiote like it was any other Saturday afternoon. A faint beeping came from his right that picked up its rhythm ever so slightly as he reached consciousness. The journalist let out a heavy sigh through his nose, feeling a soft, thrumming pain pulse across his chest.

“Eddie?” Anne’s voice questioned. She was somewhere to the left of him. He hummed softly in reply and nudged his head down; which was meant to be a nod, “how are you feeling?” She continued, Eddie could tell she was closer now.

The brunette cracked his eyes open, squinting them as he was assaulted by the harsh lights in the room. Eddie attempted to pull his arm up but a soft clanging and a tug stopped him. His brows furrowed as he stared down at the restraint that handcuffed him to the hospital bed. “What the…?” he grumbled weakly, voice hoarse.

“You attacked one of the doctors that tried to put you in the MRI,” Anne explained sheepishly, “remember?”

Eddie’s head gained a bit of whiplash as he looked towards her, “we did what? Oh… yeah,” he gulped as the memory arose in his mind.

“‘We’?”

And that’s when the waterworks broke, tears spilled out of his eyes and down his grubby face. Anne gave a small, sympathetic sigh and slowly wrapped an arm around her ex, careful as to not press too hard onto any of his injuries.

It wasn’t long after that he was released from the hospital, only about a week. The nurses and his doctor told him he was healing unusually fast for the condition he was in. Even that had given him a small sliver of hope. As soon as he settled into the spare bedroom of Anne’s apartment, he attempted to call out to his other; only whispering its name softly, hoping it would respond or at least shift underneath Eddie’s skin to make its presence known to him. There was nothing, just empty silence. Eddie let out a heavy sigh and fell onto his temporary bed. He made a mental note to buy Annie and Dan edible assortments after he got back into his apartment, which hopefully didn’t still have bodies strung around the place. Eddie dreaded the feeling of knowing he would have to clean any other messes by himself. ‘Himself.’

He hated that word. Eddie raised his weak arms to cover his face with his hands as he let out a shaky breath, “c’mon, get it together, Brock,” he mumbled to himself before rolling out of bed and grabbing his phone (which had been placed onto the bedside table for him). The reporter cringed as he wiped the dirt and sand off the device. Besides the large crack the screen was sporting, it was a miracle it wasn’t broken. He pressed the home button, wincing at the overly bright screen that illuminated his face in the dual room. Eddie lowered the brightness and typed in the password and scrolled through his messages; most of which were ones that Anne sent the day he and Venom bonded.

A faint knocking on his door tugged him from his thoughts, “Eddie?” Anne’s voice called from the other side of the wood. “Is it alright if I come in?” She questioned.

“Hm? Yeah, yeah, hold on,” he nodded, wiping the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes with the sleeve of his hospital-given crewneck sweatshirt. The brunette swiftly rushed over to the door and tugged it open, “what’s up?”

Anne’s brows arched with concern, “oh, Eddie,” she whispered softly, taking notice of his already puffy eyes.

“I’m fine-- I just… I’ll get better. Besides, I only knew it for two days at most! No way I could care about it that much!” He did care about it that much. And Annie knew it.

Eddie was barely there two weeks when his ex and her boyfriend forced him to get a job. Telling him that some work will help him take his mind off of everything that had happened. Sure, Eddie knew that, but it just felt too soon. Surprisingly, he managed to score a job at a restaurant as a busboy. After that, it wasn’t long until he moved back into his apartment, which had been cleaned out by the police. However a small blood stain still clung stubbornly to the side of his fridge.

“Ain’t nothin’ like home,” he grumbled, closing the front door behind him as he stepped into the griddy apartment. As if on autodrive, he subconsciously directed himself to the bed, stepping over bits of trash and broken furniture. He quietly climbed onto the dirty sheets before curling up in them, hugging himself as he willed his brain to pull him into a deep sleep. He needed this.

Next thing Eddie knew, he was being woken up by a harsh banging on his apartment door. The brunette’s eyes flew open as he shot forward with a sharp gasp. The first thing he felt was the irony taste in his mouth and soft feathers brushing against his skin.

“What the…” he trailed off before the knocking attracted his attention, “coming! Coming! I’ll be right— oof!” Eddie gasped as he was sent tumbling to the ground due to his foot getting caught in the sheets. The reporter hastily pushed himself off the ground and rushed over to the door to tug it open. Standing in front of him was his short, yet hot-headed landlord, “hey Mrs. Bongiovanni, what’s got you up at—.”

“Three in the morning?! All of the noise and ruckus, that’s what!! Everyone is calling me and telling me ‘Eddie Brock has an animal in his apartment!’ Well, I know that can’t be true, because animals are not allowed in this complex!” She spewed a long string of curses that Eddie knew weren’t in English.

Mrs. Bongiovanni is a short and plump, Italian woman with a face that must’ve been permanently shaped into a scowl. She has an undeniably short fuse and loses her temper way too much. And if she hates anything more than people, it’s animals.

“Noise? Wha— I haven’t been making any noise,” Eddie frowned with confusion.

“Oh really? Then what is all that mess?!” The old woman snapped, jabbing a finger into the doorway to point out that his apartment was indeed a disaster.

The brunette’s eyes widened as he viewed the kitchen. It appeared to be way messier than it already was. There was food and trash spewed out across the floor and the counters. The bag of tater tots he had left sitting in his fridge (out of hope of Venom returning some day) had been torn open and licked clean of any tots, even the crumbs were gone.

“I—“ he began, stopping has he felt his voice tremble before taking a deep and continuing, “I must have been sleeping walking, I’m sorry. I’ll make sure to not be an annoyance any further.”

She didn’t look convinced at first, but she gave a curt nod nonetheless and put her hands on her hips, “you better! You’re lucky I haven’t kicked you out, yet. And clean up that mess!!” Mrs. Bongiovanni ordered.

As soon as his landlord disappeared down the stairs at the end of the hall, he quietly shut the door and leaned back against. He could feel his heart hammering against his chest, threatening to break through his rib cage and join the trash on the floor. Eddie wiped away the tears that skewered his vision just so he could see the mess. He pushed himself off the door and stumbled over to his bed to study the feathers that sat bloody and scattered on his mattress.

“Venom?” He whispered softly.

**Hi, Eddie.**


	2. secrets.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie needs to watch what he says out loud and Venom has a secret of his own.

Four weeks later

“‘Like a turd in the wind’?” Eddie quoted his symbiote as he unlocked the door to their apartment.

**Shut up. I don’t insult well under pressure.**

“Oh trust me, I know,” he snickered, remembering the time Venom had straight up called him a loser in a threatening tone.

**But you** **_did_ ** **feel threatened, did you not?!**

The reporter shrugged, shutting the apartment door behind them and tossing their keys onto the counter, “eh a little bit. But there was a lot going on. You probably could’ve called me a pansy and I would’ve felt hurt.” 

**Why would I call you a pansy?? You do not smell like one, or look like one.**

“Did you just call me smelly and ugly? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure you just did,” Eddie snickered softly, plopping onto the couch with a huff.

**Not ugly or smelly to me. Perfect for** **_us_ ** **.**

A warm smile spread across his lips as he nodded in agreement, “good. We like being us…” Eddie reached over to grab the remote from the other side of the couch. It wasn’t until they were about forty minutes into some documentary on Animal Planet did Eddie speak up again, “hey. That kiss, was it really your idea?”

There was a moment of hesitation.

**Yes. Thought it would be the best way to apologize to you.**

“Apologize? For what?”

**For not explaining. For abandoning us.**

The brunette’s brows knitted together with faint anger, “hey, you didn’t abandon shit. I was the one that left us. I should be the one apologizing, not you,” he argued.

**Also wanted you to be with Anne. You miss her. I want you to be happy.**

Eddie sighed softly and shook his head, “I am happy, V. I got you, I don’t need her. Besides, she has Dan now, he’s probably better for her than I am.” He could feel Venom rolling under his skin with distaste. He knew it wanted to argue, however it stayed silent, wrapping around his heart as if to keep it warm and safe.

The next time Venom brings up Anne, is at dinner a week after their first talk. Eddie is sitting at the table, eating his greek pasta salad slowly as if to savor its taste. When in all actuality, he was just trying to look like a normal human being (even though he talks to Venom in public more than often).

**Let’s ask Anne out. We can eat Dan. Then she’ll be single.**

Eddie nearly choked on the food in his mouth, “what?!” He gasped out, “we can’t do that! That’s not— we are  _ not _ eating Dan!”

**Why not? They’re both right there. Kill two birds with one stone.**

The reporter’s eyes nearly exploded out of his head as he lifted his gaze from his plate to see Anne and Dan sitting in front of them with shocked looks, “ok, now, I know what you’re going to say, but—.”

“I fucking knew it!” Annie shouted, jumping from her seat and slamming her hand onto the table, startling her boyfriend, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!!”

**You shouldn’t have spoken, Eddie.**

“Oh shut up!” The brunette spat back, though his foul tongue dissipated as he realized Anne thought he was talking to her, “no, no, no! Not you, I’m uh… I’m talking to it,” he pointed to his head before his angered tone returned and glared down at his food as if it had just done something wrong, “I told you not to talk! You know how much I forget that no one else can hear you!”

**How can you forget? I’ve been here for over a month.**

Dan glanced up at his girlfriend, “did he say that he wasn’t going to eat me?”

“It’s not what you think—,” Eddie began but was cut off by his symbiote.

**It’s exactly what he thinks.**

“Christ, V, you’re really not helping your case here, buddy.”

Anne raised a brow, “‘V’? Seriously, Eddie?”

“You try calling the voice in your head ‘Venom’ in public!” The reporter argued, throwing his hands in the air.

**Doesn’t really make a difference, Eddie. People still give us weird looks.**

“Dude, you’re supposed to be on my side.  _ Our _ side!” Eddie argued, running a hand through his hair.

Finally, Dan raised a hand in the air, as if he had to ask to speak, “I’m sorry, but, what’s happening?”

“I swear, I will explain everything to you later but—“ Anne began but her boyfriend gasped out before she could finish.

“Oh my god. Is this about the parasite?” Dan deadpanned.

**Parasite?!**

The brunette winced as Venom’s voice boomed in his head, “it's not a parasite. The relationship is symbiotic. We both benefit,” Eddie explained, but he could tell that the lawyer wasn’t having any of it as she let out a mocking laugh and a roll of her eyes.

“Then why did you lie to me?!” She hissed, walking around the table to jab a finger into Eddie’s chest. Not even a second later she retracted her hand, holding it as if she was burned. It took a moment for Eddie to process what had just happened, it wasn’t until he felt Venom spread across his chest like a warm blanket did he understand.

“Did you just… bite her?” Eddie accused.

**Maybe.**

“Venom, you can’t just  _ bite  _ my friends! I thought we liked Anne!” He retorted, grabbing a handful of the symbiote through his shirt. However the symbiote just slipped through his skin as to avoid being tugged at.

**We do like Anne. But I will not let her get in the way of us.**

“Possessive much?” Eddie hissed under his breath, letting go of his clothing, feeling the symbiote return it’s previous movements along his chest and stomach.

Anne sighed, she didn’t even need to hear Venom to know what it was saying, “I don’t want to separate you two. That night when we went to save you, it told me about you. I can tell it doesn’t want to hurt you.”

“So… you’re not angry??” The brunette questioned.

”No! Of course I’m angry!” 

“Can someone  _ please  _ explain to me what the hell is happening?” Dan finally exclaimed above their talking.

Everyone went quiet, even Venom, and stared at the doctor who stared back between them frantically, “I will, don’t worry, I will. But just uhh… not right now. There are some things I need to ask Eddie about,” Annie explained to her boyfriend before gripping Eddie’s bicep and dragging him into the guest bedroom that he stayed in after the rocket explosion. She shoved Eddie into the room, causing him to trip over his own feet. Anne sighed as she watched Venom shoot out from Eddie to attach itself to the ceiling to keep him from falling. The lawyer folded her arms and gave him— no,  _ them _ a disappointed look.

“Why did you lie?” She demanded. Eddie knew she was referring to the time they went to get coffee five weeks after he was released from the hospital; the day they ate that asshole in Mrs. Chen’s store.

“I—,” the reporter stopped himself with a sigh, “ _ we  _ were scared. We didn’t know if you’d try to trick us into being separated, again. We can’t do that,” Eddie rubbed the back of their neck nervously as he lightly kicked at the ground.

Anne raised a brow, “are you serious? Wha— did Venom not tell you what we talked about?”

“Uhhh… no? Was it supposed to?” He questioned before asking Venom the same thing, “were you supposed to?”

**Maybe.**

“What?! So you’ve just been keeping shit from me?” He retorted, “c’mon, I thought we were a team!”

**Oh well boo-hoo, sorry you didn’t get to know about my private conversation! I happened to be pretty busy trying to save my strength so you’d quit being a pussy over everything!!**

Eddie’s brows knitted together, “oh yeah, because you seemed real weak when you took my body for a joyride and ate twenty seagulls, you goddamn parasite!!”

Ah. That was the final string. The “endearment” drew a dramatic (and rather offended) gasp from his alien other.

**Take it back!**

“No!”

**Take. It. BACK.**

“You wanna know what? Fine! Because I’m nice and care about my best friend’s feelings!! Unlike one of us!” Eddie argued.

Anne couldn’t stop the smirk that tugged at the corners of her mouth as she shook her head in mild annoyance, “you two sound like fucking idiots. And I can’t even hear half the argument.”

The brunette could feel their face heat up with embarrassment. Maybe Annie knowing about them wasn’t the worst thing in the world… And explaining everything to Dan surprisingly went well. It was probably the shock of knowing that an alien para— symbiotic creature was living inside of Eddie’s body that kept Dan from calling to police; or the Avengers for that matter.

At the end of their explanation, Dan held out a finger to lightly poke at the black slime that flickered across Eddie’s skin protectively. However when the finger got too close, the blackness disappeared completely, “can you umm… could you ask it if I could feel it’s uhh texture?”

**“You know I can hear you, right?”** Venom spoke through Eddie’s mouth right before their hands flew up to cover their lips.

“Oh!” The surgeon froze for a moment, glancing over at Anne who simply glared at Eddie, “I’m um… I’m sorry. Can I?”

“No, no, you don’t have to apologize. V should be the one apologizing,” he said softly with a small sigh, watching as the ever-moving black encased his arm. Eddie watched calmly as Dan reached a finger out and softly prodded its surface, watching it squirm slightly.

**This is dumb.**

Eddie couldn’t help but roll his eyes at his other’s reaction, “oh really? Well, suck it up.”

The symbiote shifted uncomfortably for a short moment before disappearing beneath its host, Dan retracting away from it at the same time. The doctor cleared his throat to break the growing silence.

“Now, I know you said that it wasn’t uhhh…  _ eating _ you, but please come in for checkups.”

**NO!**

Eddie felt a surge of offense and pain course through him to the point where the emotions started bleeding into his own, “thanks for the offer, but we’re good, really,” the reporter turned down politely, though his eyes were cold and angry. 

Dan got the idea and shuffle back a few inches on the chair in front of them with a nod, “right! Of course, sorry for doubting you.”

**“And by ‘you,’ you mean me,”** Venom suddenly protruded from Eddie’s shoulder as a floating head, connecting to their body by an ever-changing string of black.

The doctor starred with wide eyes at the head that began talking, “umm yeah,” he gave an unsure nod. Eddie couldn’t help but smile at the thought that Dan would probably believe them if they told him that pigeons were controlled by the government at the moment.

“Alright, dude, get back in me. You’re freaking him out,” Eddie chuckled softly. The symbiote let out a soft hiss before reluctantly retracting back underneath it’s host’s skin. His smile softened as a comforting warmth spread across their chest as his other curled around their heart. There was a long moment of silence before he cleared his throat to speak again, “are we uhh… are we still going to be able to come over?” The reporter questioned nervously.

Anne gave a small sigh, probably debating whether it was a good idea or not before she finally nodded, “of course, you can, Eddie. Just maybe try not to uh…” she made a gesture to her shoulder and moved her hand out in front of her. They knew what Anne was referring to. She was asking for the symbiote to not manifest. Although the notion hurt, Eddie could understand what she was coming from.

**Not afraid of us, are you, Eddie??**

The brunette replied with a hum of disagreement before answering Anne, “yeah, yeah we can do that.”

Dan held up a finger before adding on to his girlfriend’s request, “could you maybe not talk to it? At least while I’m around…”

**_Not talk?!_** The symbiote roared in their head, causing the human to flinch slightly.

“Uhhh that might be a little much,” Eddie said softly, giving him an apologetic smile, “sorry.”

“No! It’s alright! I mean, it’s not like you’re just talking to yourself. It’s kinda just like hearing someone on the phone. I just figured that it might make it easier to know who you’re talking to,” Dan quickly explained himself.

**Technically are talking to yourself. I am you, and you are me.** **_We._ **

“Yeah, I know, V,” he murmured to it before replying to his ex’s boyfriend, “it’s fine, we get it!”

**No we don’t.**

They ended up finishing dinner and even had time for desert before they decided it was getting a bit late. Eddie wasn’t worried about getting mugged or killed, he had the symbiote to protect them. But if they were attacked, they might eat their attacker. Everytime they go out to… hunt, their victims always make it onto the news.

Most people say it’s some crazed and fucked-up cannibal. Some think it’s some cryptic being, like the Mothman or Bigfoot. Some say it’s an alien left over from the attack on New York City that migrated to California for some reason that varies, depending on what conspiracy theorist you’re talking to. Others even say it’s some mutated human experiment that escaped from the Life Foundation labs that they blew up; which isn’t all that far from the truth. 

There are blurry pictures and videos popping up all over social media. There are people going around saying that they have met the creature, seem even are claiming to  _ be _ the creature. Although they should be concerned, they find it silly. They’ve spent countless nights scrolling through the ‘SanFranMonster’ hashtag on twitter and laughing at all of photoshopped images and fake claims. It’s only been a month and they’re already so popular. Although Eddie is used to the publicity, he could feel the symbiote’s gluttonous pride at how well known they are.

The walk home wasn’t long with the help of Venom. They were able to easily scale buildings and hide in the shades. This was also around the time the “monster hunters” (or so they called themselves) came out in an attempt to get a clear picture or a video, maybe even talk with Venom if they got lucky. They could never even get close.

**“Been thinking, Eddie,”** the symbiote suddenly said as Eddie closed the door to their apartment. He raised a brow, watching the head that bobbed in front of him.

”Oh yeah? Since when?” He teased, setting his apartment keys onto the counter and moved deeper into the studio apartment to grab the tv remote off of the cheap IKEA coffee table that Anne and Dan gifted them with. Eddie plopped onto the couch and pressed the on button on the remote before scrolling the channels, not sure what to watch.

**“We should make a Twitter account!”** It beamed.

“We do have a Twitter account.”

**“But that one is for your work! We need one for** **_us_ ** **. Show the world who we are!”**

Eddie tore his eyes away from the tv to look at his other with a gaping mouth, “show the world? Wha— no, that’s a terrible idea. I think all this popularity is getting to your head, bud…” 

**“Misunderstand, Eddie. Not show the world you, but take pictures of us. Anne and Dan already know, doesn’t matter if they see.”**

“Wait. Did you— were you just waiting for them to find out so you could ask me about this?” It’s host accused. The symbiote seemed to shrink slightly, possibly out of embarrassment.

**“Maybe… But, it’ll be fun! Show the world we are good!”** It pressed, lightly nudging the side of Eddie’s head.

Eddie shook his head disapprovingly, “we don’t need to show them anything. As long as we know we’re good, that’s more than enough for me. Should be enough for us.”

Well, maybe making an account for them wouldn’t be so bad. Like his other said, it could be fun. They could laugh at all of the people calling them frauds, and laugh at all of the people who actually believe they’re the real deal. Maybe they could post pictures occasionally; like a bird’s eye view of their next meal before pouncing, or—

“Stop putting those thoughts into my head,” Eddie snapped, causing his other to let out a gravely sigh, though he could tell it still held some hope, “answer is still no, just so you know.”

Later that night, while Eddie slept, the symbiote created a twitter account.


	3. nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie and Venom's dreams begin to mix and a night so nice looking fella begins to haunt them. Comic readers I'm looking at you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok in the last chapter i had to manually space the beginning of each line bc the tab button doesn't work, but i got tired of that real fucking fast so i'm not doing that anymore lmao.

Eddie blinks. He finds himself at the launchpad. The rocket is there, oddly clean. What happened to all the destruction they caused? He turns his gaze to look up at the top of the rocket. It’s then that he notices that the sun is out. But, how can that be possible? It was dark just a moment ago. Eddie is distracted by the wet heat that was quickly spreading throughout his chest and stomach. His neck arches down so he can see what it is that’s causing this feeling. His eyes go wide as he finds a large blade-like object protruding from his chest. 

**—ie!**

Who is that voice? It’s familiar. Eddie wants to ponder that thought more but he can’t. He tries to take in a sharp breath, but he can't breathe. He can’t even speak.

**Eddie!!**

There it is. The brunette looks back up at the sky. He realizes that the light in the sky isn’t the sun. It was a rocket… but, the rocket was right here. So who’s rocket is in the sky? Eddie falls to his side, staring out onto the lake the platform looked off of. Except the lake wasn’t there. It was a field of writhing black. A gaunt man, with long, matted, blonde hair and red eyes, his mouth stretched into a grin that reached his ears. His teeth and nails sharp and knife-like. The man began laughing at him as he died. He sounded just as he looked; haunting.

**Eddie, wake up!**

With a sharp gasp, Eddie sat up. His whole body felt chilled to the bone, however his skin was slicked with a layer of sweat, causing his shirt and pants to stick to his body. This was not the first time this has happened, however he doesn’t usually dream of things he’s never seen before. 

”Shit…” he shakily breathed, covering his face with his hands before laying back down.

**Sorry, Eddie.**

The reported frowned, glancing over at the clock beside his bed, groaning when he saw that it read 3:39am. “What are saying sorry for? It’s not like you can control our dreams, they just happen,” Eddie reminded his other before reluctantly rolling out of bed to pull off his t-shirt and pajama pants. Which left him in just his boxers, he didn’t mind though. Eddie could feel his alien other watching but it didn’t disturb him. The symbiote was a part of him, they were Venom. The symbiote ran over their skin to soothe their nerves and restless heartbeat, lightly hugging the organ. Eddie sighed softly as he felt their stomach rumble, figured they would be hungry, they always are after a nightmare. He tugged open the freezer and pulled out the last bag of tater tots, making a mental note to buy more next time they go to Mrs. C’s shop. Turned on the toaster oven that sat on the kitchen counter and waited for it to finish preheating. “Hey V,” he began, he took the quiet grumble in his head as a gesture to continue, “what… who was that? The man in our dream?” His other hugged his heart almost uncomfortably so, “did you know him?”

**No… don’t know that man. Don’t want to know that man. But, that was my planet; Klyntar.**

Eddie folded their arms over their chest, “Klyntar? That’s where you were from?”

**Not a very nice planet.**

“Yeah, didn’t look very pleasant,” he nodded, pouring half the bag of frozen tater tots onto a semi-clean cookie sheet as Venom hummed in agreement. It wasn’t long until the timer dinged and they shoved their late-night-early-morning snack into the toaster oven and waited for the tater tots to cook. Eddie stared blankly at a blood stain that still sat comfortably on his floor. “We should start looking at new apartments,” he said suddenly. 

**What’s wrong with this one?**

Eddie couldn’t help but let out a small snort, “the window is broken, there are several blood stains, it’s loud, and the neighbors suck ass. Besides, with that money from the Life Foundation, we can pretty much go wherever.”

**Said that we should eat the neighbors. Then they won’t be annoying.**

“They’re not bad people—“

**Except that asshole on the third floor. Beat his girlfriend.**

The reporter grimaced at the memory, they had taken great pleasure in eating him, “yeah but not everyone here is a bad person. They might have a lot going on, or they just don’t care about everyone else.”

**Rude humans.**

“Hey, you were going to eat me so get off that high horse of yours, big guy,” Eddie accused teasingly with a smile, sending a wave of warm emotions through their link so his other wouldn’t feel so depressed. It seemed to work.

**Yeah, yeah. Now hurry; tater tots will burn.**

Eddie nodded, “right, right.”

They were content like this. This is where they belonged.

“Hiya Eddie, how you doing?” Mrs. Chen greeted as they tugged open the door to her small shop.

“I’m doing better,” he nodded, giving her a small nod as he looked through the small aisles.

“I was asking the both of you,” she corrected with a smirk.

Yeah, ok, so maybe Eddie had told her about Venom. But did he really have a choice? They ate a man in front of her while in her shop. It only seemed reasonable to explain everything to her, but of course they waited a week after eating that scum before talking to her. Sure, Mrs. Chen felt uncomfortable at first, but she warmed up to it pretty quickly after realizing that she’s now got her very own security service. In return, she would occasionally slip a couple chocolate bars into their bag with a wink. She was Venom’s favorite human (besides Eddie, that is).

A smile tugged at the corners of their lips as he looked over his shoulder at Mrs. Chen. Eddie could feel Venom’s appreciation bleed through their bond, “we’re pretty good.”

“Good,” she nodded before turning back to whatever she happened to be doing before behind the counter, satisfied with Eddie’s answer.

Eddie hummed at that and walked deeper into the small convenient store, skimming the shelves as he reread his mental list in his mind.

**Don’t forget chocolate.**

“Oh, yeah, like you gotta remind me to get the one thing you’ve been bugging me about all morning,” he groaned with a small roll of their eyes, ignoring Venom’s hiss of protest. Eddie sighed softly as he stopped in front of the rows of various assortments of cheap chocolates. Buying $6 worth of chocolate bars didn’t seem like much, but it adds up over time.

**Could use the money from the Life Foundation.**

For a moment, Eddie contemplated its suggestion before shaking their head, “we can’t. If we wanna get a nicer apartment we need all the money we can get,” he explained. Eddie felt his symbiote (his? Yeah, his) curl in the pit of his stomach. The reporter immediately recognizes the action as a sign of pouting.

**Not pouting! We have over a million of your U.S. dollars. Could buy whatever we want.**

“Yeah, but we can’t be greedy with what we have! Otherwise we’d run out of it before we know,” he explained simply, grabbing a handful of the cheapest chocolates and throwing them into his small basket before moving on.

**Joy kill…**

Eddie snorted softly, “I think you mean ‘killjoy.’”

**To-may-toe, to-mah-toe.**

“Well you got that right, I’ll give you that,” he gave a small nod in praise, moving over to the fresh produce, much to Venom’s disapproval.

In the end, they ended up buying way more than Eddie had meant to. Mrs. Chen had offered to give them a small discount for helping her and keeping her store safe, however Eddie refused to take her up on her kind offer. To which Venom growled at him, claiming that it would help them save money just like how Eddie wanted to.

After arriving home an hour later, they microwaved some popcorn before throwing themselves on the couch for Venom to watch whatever was on while Eddie worked on an article about the growing littering on the ground in San Francisco. In the article he was specifically writing about how that trash ends up making its way to the ocean via street drains and wind. Venom had complained about how stupid humans were to ruin the very planet they live on. Hence the reason Eddie put on a movie to distract the symbiote from doing his job. It was only halfway through the movie when Venom spoke up again, turning its small noodle-like head to the journalist. 

**“Eddie,”** it began suddenly,  **“why did she do that?”**

He glanced up at the screen, he was just now noticing that the movie playing was The Proposal (one of Anne’s favorite romantic comedies). The scene showed Sandra Bullock confessing to the family that she is in fact marrying Ryan Reynolds only for the soul purpose of remaining an American citizen. 

“Why did she do what?” Eddie questioned, not sure what the symbiote was asking.

**“She admits to the family, but it is both very clear and obvious that they love each other!”** It hissed, annoyed with the situation.

Venom’s annoyance forced a laugh to bubble out of Eddie, “well, humans can’t read each other’s minds like you and me. They uh… tend to be really bad at reading other people. They may love each other but they’re not sure if they want to admit it, because they’re afraid the other will turn them down,” he informed.

**“That is stupid. But if she just married him like they had agreed, then she could have everything she wanted! A family, citizenship, and a husband!”**

“She couldn’t get married to him because she felt guilty, V,” he sighed, closing his laptop. Eddie could tell that this was going to be a long conversation. It wasn’t exactly the first time this has happened, and it most certainly wasn’t going to be the last.

**“Poor design. Too sentimental.”**

“Says that parasite that gave up its entire race for a single old man,” he retorted with a smirk, lightly prodding Venom’s face with a finger.

**“Not just any old man, Eddie, you’re** **_our_ ** **old man,”** Venom hissed back lovingly, wrapping itself around their fingers.

Eddie’s face flushed a dark pink at the comment. He really needed to talk to Venom about saying stuff like that. A faint memory of Anne surfaced in his mind. It was a memory of them sitting on the bed. Annie had an arm wrapped around him, whispering sweet nothings as he stared down in his lap. He remembers that they had been talking about Eddie’s father, about how he treated Eddie when he was younger and now. The brunette had said the almost exact same thing, to which she replied with, “You’re  _ my _ old man.”

**“Sad, Eddie?”** The symbiote questioned.

“Hm?” He hummed before shaking his head, “no, I’m good.”

**“Know everything, Eddie. Can’t hide anything from me,”** it pursued. Eddie could feel part of the symbiote surface underneath his shirt, flattening out on their shoulder blades, squeezing him lightly.

“Uh… whatcha doin’ there, bud?” The reporter raised a brow.

Venom’s toothy grinned widened,  **“hugging you. Just as Anne did in your memories,”** it stated as if it were the most obvious thing.

Eddie couldn’t help but laugh. If someone had told him a year ago that he would lose his job, his fiancé, his apartment, and then bond with black alien slime that he would eat heads with, he would’ve told them they were crazy. But here he is, snacking on popcorn and watching The Proposal while Venom “hugs” him. 

It felt nice.

**“See! The hug is making your feel better already,”** it boasted nudging their chin with its makeshift head, clearly proud of itself.

“Alright, alright, who are you and what did you do with my symbiote?” Eddie chuckled, lightly pushed Venom away. A warmth spread throughout their chest, neither actually sure who was emitting the emotion.

**“Just trying to look out for us, Eddie. If you are sad, then so am I. We are one, Eddie.”**

They were one.  _ They _ were Venom.

That night, Venom made Eddie go to sleep much earlier than usual—really didn’t take much to slowly increase the amount melatonin released in their brain—so the symbiote could login into the twitter account it had made. Venom was surprised that its host had yet to suspect anything. 

**therealsanfranmonster (2:38am):** Does anyone know about relationships?

**Lilylovely (2:38am):** Hhiiiiiiiiiii Mr. Goo Monster Sir!!!!!!!! UWU

**FlatEarthIsFake (2:38am):** lmao what

**FlatEarthIsFake (2:38am):** u sure u the real deal????

**remmytherat (2:39am):** relationships?

**therealsanfranmonster (2:39am):** Yes.

**therealsanfranmonster (2:39am):** Feel things but I am unsure if they are feelings of love. Not my emotions though, they belong to the host.

**FlatEarthIsFake (2:40am):** oh shit u fr

**SanFranMon (2:40am):** IM THE REAL MONSTER

**Lilylovely (2:40am):** Nuh uh! You’re not the real one! I’ve seen him! ÒMÓ

**remmytherat (2:41am):** haha yeah, emotions can be real tough

  
  


Although Eddie had gotten used to Venom being in his head 24/7, he occasionally found it unfair that he couldn’t read Venom’s thoughts. The symbiote had exclaimed that it was because its thoughts tend to be Eddie’s thoughts. However they can sense each other’s emotions and can even affect each other’s moods. If Venom is hungry, Eddie is hungry, and vice versa.

The only times Eddie can truly get a look into the symbiote’s head is in their dreams. Venom’s memories bleed into his, creating horrific images. The man with the sharp, toothy grin appears in most of the dreams, calling out to them. He even appeared as some people Eddie is familiar with. He aroused fear from both Eddie and Venom. They didn’t like him at all, especially Venom. However neither of them had seen this man before. Something was wrong, and they knew it. 

**Should’ve gotten hot chocolate.**

“Well we got coffee instead, I could really use it,” he grumbled tiredly, sipping the bitter drink as he stared blankly at the wall across the coffee shop. He had barely gotten a blink of sleep last night because of the shark-toothed man.

“What was that, Eddie?”

“Huh?” The journalist jerked his head to the voice, face flushing as he saw a rather confused Anne Weying sitting across from him, “oh! Sorry, V was—“

Annie interrupted, clearly eager to finish what she was saying, “it’s fine. I asked if you were alright. You seem kinda out of it— more than usual, that is.”

“Just tired and hungry, ‘s all. Been having weird dreams lately,” he confessed, setting his drink down on the table

The blonde raised a brow, “oh? Is Venom able to help with that?”

“Nah,” Eddie shook his head, bringing his cup to his lips again, “dreams are something of the subconscious, they’re not like emotions where V can just alter the chemicals in my brain or something. Did I explain that right?”

**Meh, I could’ve explained it better, but you did alright.**

Eddie laughed softly into his cup, “wow, bud, you really know how to flatter a guy.”

“Wow.”

“‘Wow’ what?” The brunette questioned Anne with a confused glance.

She leaned forward in her seat to whisper, “it’s really alive, isn’t it?”

“Just as alive as me!” Eddie confirmed, lightly patting the place above his heart in a comforting manner.

**Yes, Eddie, alive to be** **_us_ ** **. To be** **_Venom_ ** **.** Venom hissed in his mind, something about it sounded almost… possessive. 

He froze for a short moment as a warm feeling flooded his brain. If Eddie didn’t know any better, he’d say that it was equivalent to the way he felt when he saw Anne way back when. This strange emotion had started becoming a recurring theme in their day-to-day life. Neither talked to the other about it. They didn’t say anything, so they didn’t question. Just in a silent agreement that they would figure it out later. However, neither knew when ‘later’ would be. Besides, they needed to figure out who that man in their dreams is.

“Hm… yeah, us,” the reported hummed out softly.

His ex-fiancé raised a brow from her spot across the small table, “should I… leave you two alone?”

**Is she suggesting that—**

Eddie wouldn’t even dare let the symbiote finish that sentence before quickly rudely interrupting it, “Oh c’mon, quit joking around. You’ve bonded to V before; symbiosis is… well, it’s uhh… intimate.”

**You interrupted me, Eddie.**

“Whatever you say,” Annie teased with a shrug. Before the symbiote host was given the chance to reply, Anne’s new Apple Watch dinged. The lawyer let out a small sigh as she read the notification before standing from her seat, “sorry, Eddie, I gotta get going. I’ve got a lunch meeting I have to go to. Do you need a ride home?”

The journalist shook their head, getting up from their spot in sync with Anne, “nah, we’re good. We wouldn’t want to waste your time. But thanks,” he flashed her a grateful smile before following her out of the quaint coffee shop.

“And you’re still coming over for dinner Saturday, right?” The blonde’s voice seemed to fade out, along with everything else.

Eddie frowned, brows knitting together in confusion.

**Behind her, Eddie. Behind her.**

The symbiote sounded scared… terrified almost. He turned his attention to the sidewalk behind Annie. There, standing in the center of the walkway, was the man from his dreams. Despite his disheveled and rather horrific appearance, the crowd around him ignored his presence, as if he wasn’t even there at all. Suddenly Venom’s voice couldn't be overheard by the loud booming of his own heartbeat. He couldn’t even feel the symbiote’s presence in his mind or body. His breathing became labored and panicked as fear began to drown him. Though he couldn’t tell who’s fear it was. This man just became much more scarier. And for the first time that they can remember, the man’s hand removed itself from his side and pointed a clawed finger at the journalist. 

_ “Mine…”  _ he trailed off, a sharp toothed grin widened, practically cutting his head in half.

However, he was quickly tugged back from the trance he was in by a familiar voice calling his name. Then with a blink, the man was gone.

“Eddie, are you sure you’re alright? You look sick… Is Venom eating you again?!”

“Huh? What? What?! No! No, of course it isn’t. It isn’t… I’m fine, we are fine. I just… We’re gonna go,” he breathed out, glancing around Anne at the spot where the man with the red eyes once was seconds ago. Eddie could feel Venom rushing through his body, working to calm his breathing, “where…? We’re not dreaming, are we?”

**No, Eddie, we are awake.**

His ex-fiancé grasped their shoulders and held them still, “Eddie!” She shouted, gaining the attention of those around them who weren’t already staring, “seriously, what is going on with you?!”

“We’ll uh… we’ll tell you when we know,” the confused brunette nodded as he ripped themselves from Anne before tumbling down a nearby alleyway, “V, get us out of here,” he muttered, bracing a hand against the brick wall, embracing the feeling of the symbiote pushing out from their shared skin and wrapping around him until they became the nine foot, man-eating monster, named Venom.

“Shit— Eddie, come back out here!” Anne hissed under her breath as she quickly followed them down the alley. Venom turned to lean down and growl in her face in an attempt to scare her off, which undoubtedly failed. The blonde simply raised a brow and put her hands on her hips, “did you just  _ growl _ at me?”

**“Leave us alone. Need to figure out what is wrong with us,”** the symbiote hissed. Without giving Anne the chance to reply, they leaped up onto the fire escape of the building they had leaned against. It didn’t take them long to scale the entire building, disappearing from Anne’s sight as they crawled onto the roof. Then everything began moving too fast for Eddie to keep up, soon he didn’t even know where they were. All he knew was that they were moving, and they were moving fast.

_ V— hey, wait. Venom, stop! _

**“Safe, Eddie, need to get somewhere safe,”** the symbiote breathed, not even faltering its pace. It was then that Eddie realized that the fear that pumped through them belonged to Venom.

_ I said— _ “STOP!” Eddie exclaimed as he gained back control, however the living suit remained. The reporter gasped as he tripped over their own feet, causing them to face plant into one of the many puddles on the roof. Eddie quickly pushed them to their feet, taking notice that their hands were still sharp, black claws, “whoa— what the…” Eddie breathed, holding their hands in front of their face for study, “wait— does this mean I could’ve had control like this, this whole time?!” He barked, the response he got came reluctantly.

**Yes… Didn’t want you to know because you are in control all of the time. We need to be equals, Eddie. This is not a dictatorship.**

The Venom mask slowly peeled away from their human face so the symbiote could talk with Eddie verbally, just how Eddie likes.

“You could’ve at least told me about it! Instead of making it feel like you could take over at any time,” he spat back, watching Venom’s ever-lasting smile droop slightly.

**“Didn’t mean to make you feel unsafe. Thought you wanted to have some sort of separation between us. Know what is me and what is you,”** the symbiote agreed back, its head swaying slowly towards him.

“What are you— oh…” Eddie stopped short of what he was originally going to say. With a small sigh, the brunette reached a hand up to press against the side of Venom’s face, “if you think I’m going to leave us then you’re wrong.”

**“But your emotions and your dreams—“**

The human shook his head, “they’re just little human things, Venom. I’ll admit that I’ve thought about the ‘what if’s but I’d never wish for them to happen. I’m perfectly happy here to be us,” he answered with a smile, warmth flooded through the bond.

It was then that Eddie finally recognized the familiar emotion. It was the blossoming of love that the symbiote felt for him. 


	4. social media

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The strange man has returned to haunt them. Eddie and Venom stay at Anne's, shit gets awkward. And--uh oh--Avengers Assemble????
> 
> “and look who has a Twitter account.”

**This place smells disgusting, what are we doing here, Eddie?**

_ We’re here to get something to eat and take down this human trafficking site.  _

**It was a rhetorical question, stupid. I’m in your mind, don’t need to ask.**

Eddie rolled their eyes and shook their head as he crept towards the building. The reporter had recently gained an anonymous tip about this big meet these human traffickers were going to have at 2am this Thursday. Was Eddie going to lose sleep on this job? Yes, probably. Were they going to get a hell of a meal out of this? Hell fucking yes they were.

The symbiote and host have been trying to find other foods containing phenethylamine. So far they had found that some meats contained some, but not much, on top of that fresh meat is expensive. Phenethylamine is also found in other protein rich foods, such as nuts. However it still isn’t much to feed an alien. Nothing beats chocolate and human brains. But lately they have been fasting to prepare for this job. And as a result, Eddie has found himself laying in bed with a near empty container of cocoa powder several nights. But they’ve been trying to take it slow.

The investigative reporter stopped short of turning the corner as his heightened hearing picked out several pairs of footsteps, there were at least four men standing guard.

_ Ready? _ Eddie questioned his other through their mental link.

The gooey symbiote enveloped him and let out a low growl that came from the heart of the belly. **“Always,”** it hissed out gruffly before turning the corner and charging the guards.

These guards obviously weren’t professionals. If they were, they would’ve been wearing matching suits and their shoes would’ve been way shinier. These were just some low-life scum. Their bullets pierced Venom’s skin only to just be pushed out of the gooey armory and fall to the floor with a clink.

**“Those won’t help you,”** Venom chuckled as they grasped one of their pistols and chucked at the wall with enough force that it broke. As the man attempted to escape, they yanked him back by the arm, causing him to shout in pain; a shout that was quickly silenced by Venom as their teeth came down over his head. One of the other three men had already given up and shot himself, his body sat undisturbed against the wall while the other two guards continued to open fire on them. Venom let out a huff of disappointment at the sack of shit on the other side of the small room; it’s not as much fun eating dead meat. As they turned to the remaining guards, one attempted to escape, which Venom couldn’t let happen. They let out a monstrous groan as they flung themselves at the man, effectively trapping him under their clawed foot. The symbiote found it cute that he still fearfully tried crawling away despite being pinned in place. They slowly put more and more weight onto his ribs, watching as he writhed in pain.

_ Quite playing with our food, we have work to do. _

If Venom had pupils he would be rolling his eyes.  **“No fun, Eddie…”** they grumbled as they leaned down to bite the man’s head clean off. After licking their lips, they finally looked to the last man standing, watching him for a short moment as he struggled to unlock the door they had been guarding. A dark laugh bubbled between their razor sharp teeth, as they slowly stalking towards him.

“Shit,” the guard hissed as his quivering hands dropped the keys, he slowly turned around, cowering against the door. “What are you?!” he weeped.

**“We are Venom.”**

The sirens in the distance gave them a five minute warning that they needed to leave. They let out a soft sigh as they glanced through the small crowd of women and young children of various ages from where they sat perched on top of the building. Eddie made sure they stayed, at least until the police arrived, just to make sure everyone was ok.

**“Time to go, Eddie?”**

_ Yeah bud, let’s get out of here. _

**“Go to that cookie place we like?”** Venom questioned excitedly as they climbed down from the building and sprinted into the woods, back to where they had hid Eddie’s motorbike. 

“You’re still hungry?” Eddie snickered after his other slunk back into their shared body. He carefully pulled the cheap camouflage tarp and shrubbery off his bike before swinging a leg over it and taking a seat.

**No, but we should treat ourselves! We did good.** The symbiote stated.

He shook his head and turned the key in the ignition, “well, I can’t argue with that.”

They had to keep their headlight off until they hit the main road to avoid being spotted by the police, however this wasn’t a problem for them seeing as they could see in the dark, though Eddie still felt that some light would’ve helped. Because although they could see, it wasn’t like seeing during the day, it was as if he were looking through a black and white filter. Thankfully it wasn’t too long until they were on an actual road, from then on it was smooth sailing down a sharp and twisty road.

**Eddie…**

“Uh huh?” he hummed in reply.

**Something is wrong, Eddie.**

The worry in his other’s voice caused him to stiffen, and soon he could feel the symbiote's fear throughout his body. “What- Should we stop?” he questioned.

**No, go faster! Someone is watching us!**

Eddie’s heart pumped loudly in his ears as he quickly picked up the pace, rushing down the hill side on their bike. He couldn’t help but wonder what could make the symbiote so afraid, surely they could take whoever it was that was stalking them. The reporter decided to take a quick glance over their shoulder as they reached a straight road.

**EDDIE!** they shrieked, encasing their hand in black goo to pull on the brakes, causing Eddie to whip around.

There, in the center of the road was the same man from their dream a week before. He stood completely unfazed by the fact that he was about to be hit by a motorcycle going 50mph. Eddie sucked in a sharp breath as they hit the brake as hard as they could while simultaneously swerving out of the way. The bike quickly spun out of control and tipped to the side, causing them to slide across the pavement. Eddie groaned as he carefully rolled onto his back, wincing as he attempted to take in a deep breath; he had definitely broken some ribs. He slowly held up a hand, watching as his symbiote quickly healed a broken finger. They laid there for a moment longer, orienting themselves with what had just happened. Eddie craned his neck painfully to get a look at the man they had nearly run over, unfortunately he was already gone, as if he had vanished into thin air.

“What the fuck?” he grumbled softly, pushing himself off the ground and into a sitting position. “Where’d he go?”  
**Don’t know, Eddie… Should go home now**.

“Yeah, we should...” Eddie whispered out, glancing around for a minute before picking his bike back up (which had only sustained some severe scratches along the side that had scraped across the road) and hopping back onto it, getting out of dodge before the demonic man returned. As they crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, Venom finally spoke up.

**Should stay at Anne’s house tonight.**

“What?” He wondered, “why?”

**Shouldn’t be alone.**

“Fine…” Eddie sighed, “are you alright? You seem a little spooked out.”

**Not spooked out! Just looking out for us!!** It shot back.

The reporter couldn’t help but snort at his other’s defensiveness, “whatever you say, dude. But can you text Anne, let her know that we’re on our way? I doubt she’ll be awake though.”  
Venom let out an animalistic noise and used a couple tendrils of black goo to pull out their phone from Eddie’s back pocket and text their friend. Luckily for them, Anne replied within five minutes, which they could come up with a couple reasons as to why she’s awake at 2am… The symbiote curled around Eddie’s waist as they felt a throb of longing for Anne, although he had already gotten over her and had moved on, he still misses being in her life like he used to be. Obviously he doesn’t wish he could change the past, he loved being with his other, but it isn’t uncommon for Eddie to reinvision his old life with her.

**Eddie?**

“I’m fine. Let’s just get to Anne’s,” he mumbled and sped up.

They awkwardly sipped the hot chocolate Dan had made for them as the couple sat across from them on the couch. The two were both dressed in pajamas; Anne wore the silk robe Eddie had bought for her one Christmas over one of Dan’s t-shirts and some shorts while Dan wore a plaid pj set. Of course, they had yet to tell them why they were here, but Eddie was unsure how to explain it. What if he sounded crazy? Well, crazier than usual.

“So um… everything all good?” Anne spoke up first.

“Uh, we’re not so sure,” Eddie admitted.

His ex-fiance exchanged worried glances with her boyfriend for a few seconds before questioning Eddie again, “what do you mean? Are you in trouble?”

“I don’t think so? I dunno. Something’s got Venom seriously freaked out,” he began, taking a quick moment to gulp down the rest of the hot chocolate. “We uh… Our dreams have been merging together lately and we’ve been seeing this man… And well, we just saw him in the middle of the road and we crashed.”  
“What?” Anne and Dan said together.

The investigative journalist scratched the back of their neck, “yeah… We were coming back from a job and V said we were being watched. I’ve never felt them so scared.”

**Not scared Eddie. Just… anxious.**

“Oh my bad, I’ve never felt them so ‘anxious,’” Eddie corrected himself sarcastically before sighing, “anyway, we were wondering if we could stay the night here?”

Anne looked to Dan, thought he quickly put his hands up in defense, “don’t look at me, it’s your apartment, I don’t mind if they stay.”

“Then that settles it, I guess. You guys can stay… but we both work early tomorrow morning. I can try to work from home if you want me to,” the lawyer offered.

Eddie shook his head, setting the empty mug on the glass coffee table, “we’ll be alright, you don’t have to do that for us.”

“If you say so…” Anne lightly slapped her hands on her knees with a small huff before pushing herself off of the couch, to which Dan followed and stood beside her. She paused for a minute before nodding towards the hallway, “you already know where the guest bedroom is. Do you need anything else?”  
“Um… Do we need anything?” Eddie repeated her question.

**No, we are all we need.**

“Ok then,” he mumbled, “I guess we’re good. Thank you for letting us stay the night.”

“Yeah, of course. Sleep tight you two,” Anne said softly.

“Night,” Eddie replied with a yawn.

They tried to ignore the slight uncomfort in Dan’s eyes, they could smell his awkwardness, although it wasn’t enough to be offending, they just thought Dan should probably be used to this by now, considering how long they’ve known each other.

**We did almost kill him…** Venom pointed out, reading Eddie’s thoughts.

The journalist ignored his other’s comment as they tiredly made their way down the hall and into the guest bedroom, pretending not to notice Anne watching them. It wasn’t until they closed the door did they hear Dan and her return back to their room. Eddie let out a breath he hadn’t realize they had been holding as he sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the time; it was nearly 3am now.

**“Eddie…** ” a deep voice echoed in his right ear.

“Hm?” he hummed, tossing his phone beside them on the bed before turning to the symbiote.

**“Are we ok, Eddie?”** it questioned, lightly nudging the side of his face with it’s own.

The man nodded softly, “yeah, we’re ok, I think.”

It’s eyes narrowed,  **“what’s that supposed to mean?”**

“I dunno, look through my head,” Eddie grumbled, leaning down to yank his sneakers off, not bothering to untie them first. Then he shrugged off his leather jacket and sweatshirt, half-heartedly folding it and setting it at the end of the bed, and then finally he stood to pull his pants down, and he would’ve tripped over himself had Venom not caught them and used several tendrils of black to get them the rest of the way off. “Thanks, love.”

**“Love?”** Venom repeated.

Eddie’s cheeks flushed turning to the floating head, “I meant--.”

**“Do you love me, Eddie?”**

“Well, I mean, yeah. You’re my best friend, of course I love you. It just slipped out,” he explained quickly, looking away to crawl under the cool covers of the bed.

“No, Eddie! You know what I meant by ‘love’!” it hissed softly, though it clearly wasn’t mad.

The human host sighed heavily and lied on his side so he wouldn’t have to look Venom in the eyes, “can we just sleep? We can talk about this later…” 

**“When is later?”**

“Goodnight, V.”

Eddie heard the symbiote let out a low growl before reluctantly retreating back into its host. Before he began to wonder if it was going to say anything else, Venom grumbled out a quiet,  **“goodnight… pussy.”** Though Eddie was too exhausted to retaliate. Thankfully that night their dreams weren’t haunted by the disturbing man who seemed to follow them.

The next morning, Venom woke Eddie up at the smell of chocolate and pancakes and bacon, which smelled better than any food they had attempted to cook on their own. That isn’t to say Eddie was a bad cook, but he only ever made spaghetti, double fudge brownies, mac and cheese, and a chicken dinner that looked only half edible. Plus they didn’t own any fancy kitchenware, so it was always a treat when they got to eat dinner at Anne’s.

**Hungry, Eddie!** The symbiote exclaimed, seemingly feeling much better than it did yesterday.

He groaned and rolled onto his side, “yeah, in a few.”

**No, Eddie, now.** And with that it forced Eddie to sit up, causing him to gasp.

“Ok, fine!” the reported sighed, sluggishly getting out of bed and tugged on the clothes he had shed last night. He then went to fix the bedsheets, however Venom stopped him.

**Can do that later, need to eat.**

“Bud, it’ll take us five seconds. Besides, it’s the least we can do,” Eddie informed, attempting to gain back control of their hands, “besides, we ate like twenty guys last night.”

There was a long moment of silence before Venom spoke again, allowing its host to move.

**Fine…**

“Thank you,” he huffed, quickly making the bed before opening the bedroom door and making their way into the merged kitchen and dinner room where Anne stood at the stove cooking pancakes, it reminded Eddie of when they were together. Dan had apparently already gone to work. The investigative reporter awkwardly cleared his throat, “umm… ‘morning.”

Anne turned her head to them, making Eddie self-conscious, much to Venom’s distaste.

“Good morning, I thought you were going to sleep forever,” Anne chuckled, looking back to the griddle to flip the batch of pancakes.

“Ha ha, yeah… Uh, thanks for letting us stay the night, and you didn’t have to work from home for us. If there’s anyway we can make it up--.”

“Eddie,” she interrupted, “it’s fine. You don’t need to thank me.”

**She seems… Annoyed.** Venom mused.

_ Yeah she usually is whenever I do somethin’ like this. _ Eddie thought back as he took their seat at the table, waiting for their breakfast to be done.

**Like “this?”**

_ You know what I mean… _

Anne cautiously approached them, stopping halfway when they noticed her, only for her to give them a small smile before walking again. “We didn’t have any chocolate bars left but… we did have chocolate chips,” she explained as she set a stack of five chocolate chip pancakes in front of them. Just the sight of it was enough to make their mouth water.

“Hm?” Eddie looked at her for a moment before processing what she had said, “oh! Yeah that’s alright. It looks good!” 

**Eat, eat, eat!**

“Yeah, ok, I’m going,” he mumbled softly, letting out a sigh through his nose as he stuffed a too-large piece of pancake into his mouth, his jaw unhinging abnormally. Anne rolled her eyes with a snort, moving back to the kitchen

“Hey Eddie, how do you like your bacon cooked?” she called.

Eddie swallowed their food, a long tongue poking out of their mouth to lick the syrup and butter from their lips, “as raw as you can make it.”

Most of breakfast had been quiet, neither of them really knowing what to say that would get rid of the awkwardness in the air. Although Eddie seemed to be having an interesting conversation with himself as he made faces and laughed quietly every once in a while. That is until Anne shoved her phone in Eddie’s face.

“What’s this?” she demanded.

“Umm… Twitter?” he said, only taking a quick look at the page, but the way Venom seemed to slowly creep its way into their stomach told him otherwise.

“Look closer.”

Eddie leaned forward over their plate, scanning the screen in more depth to find that it was someone’s account, and not just any account. The top of the page was the username,  **therealsanfranmonster** . And the profile picture was none other than a selfie of Venom themself on top of the highest building in San Francisco, holding up a peace sign. Eddie looked closer at the description which read, “your friendly neighborhood monster.”

“V, what the  _ fuck _ ?” he exclaimed, quickly snatching Anne’s phone out of her hand to scroll through the account, “I thought I told you no!!”

**Just wanted people to know we are good, Eddie…**

“Wait, you didn’t know about this?” Anne questioned, taking her phone back to look through it herself.

“No! Of course I didn’t! We’ll be right back,” he growled out, getting up from his seat and storming into the guest bedroom, trying his best not to slam the door. Eddie quickly closed all of the curtains and as soon as they were away from prying eyes Venom manifested a head, slowly swaying in front of its host.

**“Didn’t mean to upset you, Eddie…”** it whispered.

“Do you know what this means?” Eddie questioned, when the symbiote didn’t answer he continued, “this means the Avengers know about us! And if they see us as a threat--which I’m sure they will--they’ll hunt us down and _separate us_. Do you want to be separated?”  
It almost felt like he was talking to a child.

**“No!”** Venom hissed, **“we would eat them before they separated us… Would never let that happen.”**

“I know we wouldn’t but with their technology they could,” he argued, more quietly this time. The host took a seat on the edge of the bed and with a deep breath he calmed himself down, “I know you want the world to know we’re good, but not everyone has the same morals as us. They don’t understand us. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me since Anne, and I don’t want to lose you, bud.”

**“Best thing that has happened to me too…”** Venom agreed, light bumping its forehead against Eddie’s, to which Eddie leaned into the touch.  **“Can we keep the Twitter account though?”**

“No.”

Avengers' Tower

“Ok guys, here’s what we got: a week ago the San Francisco police department contacted me and asked us to look into a couple of strange deaths,” Tony began, tapping his Stark Tech phone to project his info onto the large screen behind him.

“A couple?” Clint Barton repeated, leaning back in his swivel chair.

The billionaire thought for a moment, “ok, more like fifty deaths.”

“And they seriously think that’s an Avenger-level threat?” Bucky snorted, “honestly why am I even here?”

“I’m getting to that,” Stark snapped, “now does anyone else want to interrupt me? No? Good. Anyways, all of the victims were found without a head, and most were practically shredded to bits,” he swiped on his phone, to which the gruesome pictures on the screen followed, “on top of that they found several claw and teeth marks on the bodies.”

Natasha leaned forward, resting her folded arms on the conference table, “so what’re we thinking? An alien? Experiment gone wrong?”

“Well, it’s both,” Tony began, pulling up some security footage from the Life Foundation, “about a year ago, a Life Foundation rocket crashed in Malaysia--.”

“Life Foundation?” Bucky repeated.

“Jesus Christ,” Iron Man mumbled before explaining, “yes, the Life Foundation did a bunch of space exploration and did some more doctor-y medical stuff. And I’d be happy to explain if everyone would give me five minutes to talk. Anyways, six months ago a rocket exploded at the Life Foundation, it wasn’t that big. I mean, I didn’t hear about it until a week ago. Turns out the CEO, Carlton Drake, was doing illegal human experimentation, attempting to combine aliens and humans together. And before anyone asks how I know this, they didn’t exactly do a great job at hiding their shit.”

“And I’m guessing these aliens were the ones from the crashed rocket in Malaysia?” Steve questioned.

“Someone give Cap a gold star here. Yes, they did,” he swiped his phone, playing a video of a strange blue slime sinking into the skin of a woman, seconds later her body began to contort and double over on itself and started seizing on the floor before eventually coming to a stop. The blue slime then slowly crept out of the woman and flung itself at the glass, as if attempting to escape, then the video paused. “They called these weird goo creatures, ‘symbiotes.’ They can’t survive in an oxygen rich environment so they need a host. And of course the host and symbiote needed to be perfectly matched, but after playing a little too much hot potato with the aliens, the symbiote and hosts began to die. Yikes.”

“Incredible…” Bruce mumbled, staring intently at the paused screen.

“But why were they dying?” Nat spoke up.

“Uhhh… no clue, they never found out,” Tony shrugged, “but, some guy had the bright idea to break in and touch  _ everything _ and managed to escape with one of the symbiotes. Turns out they had perfect symbiosis.”

The screen played a few more videos of a car chase that had been taken with drones. Unfortunately all of the drones had been taken out before they could see how the chase ended, but they could assume the alien got away. The time stamp let them know the videos were recorded in October of 2018.

“That rocket explosion six months ago supposedly killed the last two symbiotes left, most of the video footage of the explosion was destroyed along with the facility but some camera further away picked up a man falling into the lake. The footage was too grainy to identify him but we do have a suspect, so don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

“Just get on with it Stark,” Steve sighed, folding his arms over his chest.

“Chill, I’m getting to it,” Iron Man began, “back when the rocket crashed in Malaysia, a well known investigative reporter named Eddie Brock attempted to call out Drake on his shit, but it ended up backfiring and it cost him his job, his relationship, his reputation, and his apartment. Six months later, one of the head scientists is seen with Brock, which we can only assume she went to him for help.”

Clint frowned, “so why do we just ask her about the symbiotes?”

“We can't, she's dead,” Tony informed before continuing, “but, Brock is still alive. So that’s a yay.”

“So because all these bodies are turning up, they think that there’s a symbiote still alive?” Bucky suggested,

“Yep, and they think Brock has it,” Tony pulled up a medical file that showed an MRI scan of Eddie Brock, “Brock was admitted into a hospital hours before the explosion, he was sustaining organ failure and was basically on the verge of death. Then, right after the explosion, he was admitted back into the hospital and not even a week later he was as healthy as he could be.”

“So you think…” Bruce trailed off.

“Eddie Brock is the San Francisco Monster,” Tony finished his sentence with a nod.

“Oh my god,” Peter Parker, who was told to stay quiet, leapt out of his chair and held his phone up in front of him to show everyone, “and look who has a Twitter account.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all best believe my baby Peter B. Parker is gonna in this. btw we're just gonna pretend they killed Thanos and Tony didn't have to die bc that shit was sad plus Eddie hates the rich and he hates Tony (y'all can't tell me otherwise). oh and Steven didn't go back in time bc that shit was fucking stupid (even tho i cried bc he was finally truly happy but it still shouldn't have happened. also Thor is in space with the guardians so that's why he's not there. BUT HE WILL BE BACK!


	5. assemble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie explains some human rules to Venom, two reporters visit them and attempt to bribe Eddie into giving them information, and the Avengers have a new favorite tv show...
> 
> "Why? We want this, we need this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm gonna be real with y'all. I wrote about 80% of this when i was drunk the other night so idk how much it'll make sense to y'all.

Both knew exactly what was going on between them. They shared the same body and mind after all. However neither wanted to address it, or at least they didn’t know how to, to begin with. But soon the soft, gentle touches here and there from Venom became noticeable. And whenever they would stay up late watching tv after a long day, the symbiote would form a hand to hold Eddie’s. Eddie knew he had to bring it up at some point. But instead he rolled with it, pretended that they’ve always been this way, that nothing has changed. It almost reminded him of when he and Anne were together.

**Something wrong, Eddie?**

“Hm? Oh, no, it’s nothing. Just spacing out,” he informed, folding their arms over their chest as he leaned back in their chair. Eddie blinked at the half written article in front of him on the table. 

It’s been four days since they stayed the night at Anne and Dan’s. Four days since Eddie found out Venom made a Twitter account without him knowing. And it’s been four days since they essentially confessed to each other… Yet they still haven’t mentioned it.

**Sure, Eddie?**

“Yes, I am sure,” the journalist confirmed with a sigh. However that wasn’t enough to convince Venom; he could feel his symbiote rolling under his skin, “I guess we’re doing this now…” he breathed, running a hand through their still-damp hair from the shower they took earlier.

**Tell us.**

Eddie gave a small shake of his head, “c’mon man, you’re in my head. Are you seriously gonna make me ask it out loud?”

**Yes.**

“Fine…” he paused as his other scanned his thoughts as they popped into his mind. It was minutes later that he picked out one question to ask: “What are we? I know we’re Venom, but what is our relationship?” Eddie gave Venom a moment to materialize a head that grew from his right shoulder.

**“We have symbiosis. Something far more intimate than any human relationship. We are one,”** it explained, engulfing their hand to form that of Venom’s. Eddie held the slick, clawed hand up in front of them to view.

“Does that make us… a couple?” He couldn’t help but laugh at what he had just said. It just seemed silly, being in a relationship with the man-eating, alien goo that lived in his body. 

The symbiote’s head tipped to the side for a short moment, as if to think about what Eddie had said,  **“not sure. We are more than that,”** it quickly noticed that Eddie wasn’t satisfied with its answer and changed its wording,  **“I suppose that in a sense, we are. Just think about it on the next level. Like your human ‘soulmates.’”**

_ Soulmates. _

“So you… you love me?” Eddie pressed, laying their shared hand on the table as he turned to stare into the symbiote’s opalescent eyes.

**“Don’t you? You forget that I feel all of your emotions,”** it chuckled darkly.

The journalist’s brows furrowed, “what? But those were  _ your _ emotions.”

Venom stared at him in silence for a short moment of silence,  **“they also came from you as well, Eddie. They were** **_our_ ** **emotions.”**

Their entire world seemed to come to a standstill as they both came to the realization at how fuzzy the line between them had gotten. How much their feelings and thoughts bled into each other until they couldn’t even tell which belonged to who.

“Huh…” was all Eddie could say as he turned his head to gaze blindly at the wall, “really?” He questioned, looking back to the swaying head.

**“Yes.”**

“This is— shit, I don’t know. What do we even say to this? How does this even work?” He laughed weakly in a quick attempt to rid the awkwardness between them.

The symbiote shrugged using his shoulders,  **“at least the feeling is mutual, yes?”**

Eddie nodded and smiled at his other, “yeah, guess you’re right.”

**“Eddie,”** Venom’s voice had suddenly become quiet as it said his name.

“Yeah?”

The symbiote moved itself so it was floating just inches in front of his face,  **“would it be alright if I kissed you, again?”**

Eddie’s eyes widened at his other’s request, “I um— yeah, yeah that’s alright,” he nodded softly as he gazed at the rows of razor sharp teeth they used to bite the heads off of criminals, “how are we uh—“ Eddie stopped himself short as black slowly covered its teeth, “oh, right.” 

Venom bumped its forehead against its host’s, narrowing its eyes as it pressed its flat mouth against Eddie’s lips. Eddie jumped slightly as newly formed claws carefully cupped his jaw, informing him that his other had formed arms and about half a torso. With the addition to the floating head, Eddie placed his hands on the symbiote’s chest as the makeshift lips cautiously began moving against him. 

It was… different, to say the least. It was almost as if Eddie could feel his own lips as well as Venom’s lips. The kiss seemed to last minutes, when it was really only about fifteen seconds in all actuality. He let out a content sigh as the symbiote pulled away, studying his brain activity for any red flags.

“That was… different— from the time in the forest, that is,” the reporter spoke with a hefty breath.

**“Didn’t want us to be overwhelmed,”** its clawed hands removed itself from Edde’s head and rested on his biceps.

“You— you were afraid to  _ overwhelm _ us?” Eddie couldn’t help but laugh at his other, “I’ve already had that stupidly long tongue down my throat, you really can’t step it up from there,” he shook his head as a dusty blush bloomed on his cheeks.

The symbiote’s tongue rolled out of its mouth to lick a small stripe up the side of Eddie’s face,  **“but you like our tongue… can’t deny it, Eddie. I’m in your head.”**

“Shut up,” he groaned softly with embarrassment and pushed away the head, “yeah, we are  _ not _ doing that tonight.”

**“Oh?”** It beamed, glimmering eyes going wide,  **“so we will do it?”**

Eddie was bright, lobster red now. Pushing himself up from his seat, Venom swiftly returned back under their shared skin. “No!” He exclaimed, “nope, nopity, nope, nope. That is uh… let’s just say that we’ll just cross that bridge when we get there.”

**Already crossed it, Eddie.** The symbiote snickered in their mind.

“Oh alright. Well, in my defense, I was whacked out of my mind. I was just happy to see you!” He argued, throwing their hands up into the air.

**That’s one word for it.**

“Shut up man,” Eddie shook his head before sitting back down in his seat and throwing open his laptop to reveal the half written article that had been abandoned.

**You shut up. You have an article to finish.**

One Week Later

**Change of plans, Eddie.**

“Oh yeah? And what do you have in mind, big guy?” Eddie whispered with a chuckle as he shoved a handful of dark chocolate into their mouth, glancing over at his friends to make sure he wasn’t disturbing them much.

The movie playing was something Dan had picked out. A Hundred Foot Journey, that’s what it was called. It was about something both Dan and Venom liked, food. Except, Dan prefers to cook his food in the kitchen with all kinds of spices and herbs rather than eating it fresh in some alleyway behind some sad excuse of a Chinese buffet.

**We… let Dan live so he can cook free food for us, we not date Anne, and we instead stay with us.**

“That sounds like a pretty great plan. How’re you going to get us to stay?” He pressed with a rise of his brow, lightly rubbing the black tendril that wrapped around their finger with their thumb. 

**I keep us healthy and satisfied, in more ways than one, of course.**

The symbiote sounded smug. And Eddie could tell it was proud of itself for causing Eddie’s heartbeat to jump. He swallowed thickly, “oh yeah? Sounds like you know what you’re talking about.”

**Only because I know everything you want. What** **_we_ ** **want.**

Eddie hummed softly in agreement. “We,” he repeated.

“Jesus Christ, get a room you two,” Anne scolded with a laugh, causing the reporter to look up at the other couple.

“What?! We aren’t— no way,” Eddie exclaimed as if the thought of them being together as a couple is laughable.

**She’s said that before. Before we were… “together.”**

The reporter snorted under his breath and shook their head at his other’s pause before saying the word ‘together.’

“Well… if it’s anything, you guys are practically holding hands,” Dan pointed out sheepishly, pointing to their goo covered hand, to which Venom slunk back into their skin as quickly as it could. 

Eddie gave a small shrug, “I mean, it’s kinda just me holding hands with myself,” he clasped his now free hands together in an attempt to get his point across.

**Ourself.**

“Right, sorry, ourself,” Eddie corrected, giving the couple beside them an apologetic smile, he only received suspicious looks, “but seriously, we’re not together.”

Eddie let out a soft hiss as his symbiote pulled their body against the apartment door. The kiss they shared was messy and filled with lots and  _ lots _ of tongue. Venom’s being surfaced every so often, tracing patterns on their shared skin. Almost as if they were living tattoos. Eddie clenched their fists from where they were being held beside their head. The symbiote formed two, clawed hands to feel down their body, clawing at the skin lightly. Something about what they were doing felt so wrong… so… alien. There was a constant feedback loop of emotion and pleasure. What Eddie felt, Venom felt, and then that pleasure flooded back into the reporter.

But, as a tendril began moving past the waistline of his underwear, the journalist froze.

_ Babe— _

**Something wrong, Eddie?** The symbiote gripped their hips with its makeshift hands.

_ Stop for a moment, _ he thought to it with a groan as the claws softly dug themselves into their flesh.

**Why? We want this, we** **_need_ ** **this,** it growled in reply,  **we can feel it. I can make you feel better than ever before.**

_ Venom, let me go, _ lightly biting down at the large tongue that invaded their mouth in a small warning, despite knowing that he couldn’t ever actually hurt the symbiote.

For a short moment nothing changed, then Eddie was able to move freely once again and the black goo that began creeping into his pants disappeared. Venom pulled its tongue from their mouth and shrunk back into their body without another word. He could feel the other’s hurt and betrayal.

“I’m sorry, V… But not yet,” he sighed, lightly patting his chest.

**Why, Eddie? Thought you wanted us.**

“And I do! But—“

**But what? You want it yet you say no? Why?**

Eddie ran a hand through their tousled hair and stepped deeper into their apartment, “humans are weird like that… we uh— it’s… It’s kinda like eating brains. We can’t just do it whenever we want, there are certain guidelines we have to follow,” he explained, pressing their hands together. The journalist pursed their lips at the soft hiss Venom gave at the thought of the “silly human rules” it had to follow, “yeah, I know, they suck. But they’re necessary. If we ate everyone we thought looked tasty, we’d have the Avengers on our ass and they’d take us away—“

**I would never let that happen!**

Eddie gave a curt nod in agreement, “I know, my love. But, that’s why we have rules. So nothing bad happens.”

**What is bad about having sex whenever we want?**

“Uhhh a lot of things. Humans, care a lot about consent— or at least most care,” he said, waving his hands around as he explained, “on top of that, having too much sex can be bad for the human body. I know you can heal us, but sometimes waiting for it is best. Trust me?”

**Always trust you, Eddie.**

The answer was reluctant, but the symbiote—vaguely—understood what its host was trying to tell him. The cold shower they took moments later did nothing to rid the faint awkward being shared between their bond. It was around dinner time a few hours later that Eddie finally spoke to his other.

“What do you want to eat? We still have that leftover pizza from the other night,” he offered, opening the freezer to see what all they had. Eddie sighed when Venom didn’t respond, “looks like we’re getting a little low on food, should we treat ourselves and go to that fancy gro--.”

**Someone’s at the door.**

Not even half a minute later someone gave three loud knocks to the apartment door. Eddie pursed his lips and closed the freezer before making his way over to the door and hesitantly opening it. In front of them stood a man and a woman who they had never seen in their life, the man wore a nice sweater and a pair of slacks, a brown leather satchel hung from his shoulder, and the woman wore a loose blouse tucked into a pencil skirt.

“Hello sir! Does Eddie Brock live here?” the man questioned.

“Yeah, you’re talking to him,” Eddie studied the two, “who are you?”

“My name is Sandra Wilson and this is my partner, Jonathan Fernandez. We’re reporters from the Daily Bugle in New York City,” the woman, Sandra, said with a smile.  
Eddie raised a brow, “you came from across the country to interview me?”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Brock,” she gave a small nod.

“Please just call me ‘Eddie,’” he corrected, stepping aside to allow the reporters into their apartment despite his wariness of them, “sorry it’s a little messy… So what’s the story?”

The reporters stepped inside, taking it in while Eddie closed the door behind them. Jonathan turned to Eddie first while Sandra continued to look around, being careful not to touch anything. “We were hoping to talk to you about the Life Foundation rocket--.”

“Ok, I’m gonna stop you right there. I told everything to the police, besides it happened six months ago, I doubt my memory will be perfect,” Eddie sighed, folding his arms over his chest, “I hate to break it to you, but you’re just wasting your time.”

Sandra spoke up, a mischievous smirk on her lips, “we thought you would say that. So we came prepared.” She gave a small nod to her partner and he unlatched his satchel and pulled out a small brown paper bag and handed it to Eddie. He gave them skeptical looks and carefully opened the bag to see that it was full of cash. “That’s $4,000. We’re not here for just any story, we’re here for the truth. We figured you didn’t tell everyone the full story so we wanna hear all of it.”

“Fine… I’ll talk,” Eddie closed the bag and set it on the table before motioning for them to sit on the couch while he pulled up a chair in front of them on the other side of the new coffee table he had recently purchased to replace the last one. He watched Jonathan pull out a recorder and pressed the start button. “So, what do you want to know?”

“Well for starters… We know that you told everyone that you had no idea what they were doing at the Life Foundation with the aliens, but is that really true?” Sandra questioned.

Eddie shrugged, thinking about his answer for a moment, “I don’t know the full story, but I do know more than I let off. I told the other reporters that I wasn’t sure what they were doing with the aliens--which they called ‘symbiotes.’ But I had an inside source that told me they were having poor people sign shit that they don’t understand and then forcing these symbiotes to bond. I don’t know how they got these creatures or why they wanted them. I think it originally had to do with curing cancer? But I’m calling bullshit. Carlton Drake was a lying crook with a god complex. Anyways, these symbiotes basically killed you from the inside out, they killed one of my friends.”

Eddie could feel his other throb with guilt. But he knows it wasn’t its fault that Maria died, it was just following instinct.

“I’m so sorry to hear that…” Sandra said quietly, “there were rumors that you actually had an alien attached to you. Is it true?”

“Yes, but it died during the rocket explosion, just like the other one,” he lied easily.

“There were two?” she wondered, shocked.

Eddie nodded, “yup. Drake had a symbiote of his own. Both he and the symbiote died in the explosion. And the symbiote risked its life to save mine. Next thing I knew, I was in a hospital and there was no sight of the alien.”

“But according to your medical records, you were in there for less than two weeks even with your severe burns. You left without a single scar.”

“I guess it was--,” Eddie stopped himself, quickly standing up from his seat across from them, “I think you need to leave.” 

“What?” Sandra exclaimed.

“Last I checked HIPAA doesn’t include journalists,” he said, tossing the brown paper bag into Jonathan’s lap, “I don’t want your money. Now leave before I call the cops.”

The two reporters looked at each other, almost stunned for a moment before getting up and being guided out of the apartment by Eddie.

“Can we still use the information you gave us?” Jonathan asked.

“I don’t give a flying fuck what you do with the information, just don’t contact me again or you will regret it,” Eddie whispered before giving them a fake smile and slamming the door in their face. He let out a heavy sigh and leaned his back against the door, “so… Dinner?”   
  


Avengers Tower

“The cameras are all in place,” Natasha informed Tony as she ended the call with one of the agents they had sent out to pretend to be a journalist.

Stark gave a small nod, “FRIDAY, could you pull up the feed from the cameras planted in Eddie Brock’s apartment?” 

“Yes, sir,” the A.I. announced before turning on the 85” Stark Tech flat screen TV. The screen showed all of what the cameras were picking up. Camera A was set up by the window, allowing them a view of the living room and sleeping area (seeing as this was a studio apartment). Camera B was placed right by the door which showed the kitchen/dining area and half of the living room. And of course each of these cameras were equipped with audio recorders and were tiny enough to be nearly invisible. 

“Let’s get this party started,” Clint sighed, shifting in his seat on the couch to get a better look at the screen (as if it wasn’t big enough already).

Bruce sat beside Hawkeye, a notepad and pen in hand in case he wanted to take notes on the alien’s physiology for when it showed itself. Natasha then sat on the other side of the couch, watching the screen intentently. Bucky of course had decided not to join, claiming that they could catch him up on whatever happened. Unfortunately (for Tony that is) old man Steve thought he would stay, curious as to what kind of threat this alien would be. The only Avenger missing was Peter, who couldn’t be there because of school. And of course, Tony sat in the center with the remote in one hand and a bag of popcorn in the other.

_ “So… Dinner?” Eddie questioned, seemingly to know one. He stood for a minute or two, as if waiting for an answer. “Seriously? The silent treatment? You know I can feel you pouting, right?” _

“Is he… is he talking to it?” Clint questioned, finally getting interested.

“He probably has some sort of mental link with it,” Bruce explained, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

_ “Fine, pout all you want, it’ll give me a chance to eat something healthy--” Brock suddenly stopped speaking. Pausing for a second before laughing quietly, “relax, I was just joking. But seriously, we need to cut back on how much we’re eating, bud. We’re getting fat. And we’re getting noticeable.” _

_ That’s when something they didn’t expect happened, the symbiote began showing itself. Shiny black slimy wrapped itself around Eddie’s stomach, then out of the slime a head with lots of teeth and a long tongue manifested. _

**_“Not fat, Eddie. We’re soft!”_ ** _ the head exclaimed, it’s voice deep and raspy.  _ **_“Bigger Eddie, means bigger Venom. Take down more bad guys.”_ ** _ The creature then licked the side of Eddie’s face, who only seemed somewhat disgusted rather than scared. _

_ “Oh gross, dude,” Eddie said with disgust. “But seriously, we need to stop hunting so much. We’re gonna have the Avengers at our doorstep any day now.” _

“Are you kidding me?” Stark exclaimed, nearly throwing his popcorn, “we’re going up against  _ this _ ?!”

The next four hours of surveillance consisted more Eddie talking to himself and eating raw meat before eventually sitting at the couch with his laptop in his lap while the alien poked out of his shoulder and watched the cooking channel. To which Eddie complained that it was just going to make them hungry and so the alien flipped to the History channel. Then a few hours later, Eddie shut his laptop and turned to netflix to watch Tiger King, by then the alien had retreated back into its host. After a few episodes Eddie left the apartment, when he returned about forty minutes later he was carrying two large bags filled to the brim with chocolate bars.

So it’s safe to say that keeping an eye on them was boring as all hell. After hour three Clint ditched, claiming he was getting hungry and went out to eat, but he never ended up returning. And not too long after he left, Spider-Man joined them, beaming with curiosity to see Eddie’s “exciting” lifestyle. He was severely disappointed when he found out it wasn’t exciting at all.

“Christ, how many chocolate bars are they going to eat?” Natasha questioned under her breath.

“I just want to know where he’s getting all of them…” Steve added.

Banner shrugged softly, “maybe the symbiote requires cocoa powder?”

“Oh! What if there’s some chemical in it that it needs??” Peter suggested, tapping the butt of his pen against his chin.

“But did you see all of the other food he’s eaten?? His cabinets are packed with high-protein plants. I had to sit through thirty minutes of him eating five cans of baked beans!” Tony exclaimed, clearly tired of watching this gluttonous man and his alien. “FRIDAY, see what chemicals that are in cocoa powder that are also in beans and meat and human brains.”

“Yes, sir,” the A.I. replied.

Tony let out a heavy sigh and stretched his arms before standing up, “great, while FRIDAY’s working on that I think I’m gonna go grab a drink. If you wanna stay sane, I suggest you come with me.”

“Oh yes, count me in!” Black Widow quickly got to her feet and followed Tony out of the room and then not too far behind her was Bruce, leaving Steve and Peter by themselves to keep an eye on Brock.

Peter stared at the screen intently, watching as the symbiote reached across the room to pull the blanket off the bed and draped it across Eddie as he slept soundly on the couch, the bags of chocolate bars forgotten beside him.

“What’re you thinking about, kid?” Captain America questioned, leaning forward slightly to get a better look at the teenager’s face.

“Hm? Oh! I dunno,” he rubbed the back of his neck as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment, “they just don’t seem all that bad? And how do we know that he’s the one eating heads. I mean, if one symbiote survived then maybe the other one is still alive too? They look like they’re just trynna live their lives. Ya know?”

Steve thought for a moment, resting his elbows on his thighs, “well, we still have to assume that they’re the ones killing people. And if we’re wrong about them they can help us find the other symbiote. Either way, we’ll still have to get rid of the alien…”

“What? Why?!” Peter exclaimed, fully turning to the veteren with a look of confusion and fear. 

“What if one day chocolate and raw meat isn’t enough and decide to go on a spree? I want to believe they’re good just as much as you do… But they’re a threat.”

One Week Later -- San Francisco

**Eddddiiieeeeeee!**

“Whaaattttt,” the host mimicked.

**Hungry, Eddie, need to eat.**

Eddie let out a tired sigh and paused his typing, “I know, love. But we need to lay low for a bit. So that means no hunting.”

**Know that, but we can’t take any more animal meat, not enough chemicals** . Venom pouted.

“Well we’re going to have to. This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t had made that dumb Twitter account. And now we have to suffer the consequences, and that means a no-head diet,” he explained, clearly annoyed as if he had already said this multiple times (which he had). Eddie pulled his hands away from the laptop to glance down at his watch. It was 6:12pm, which meant Anne and Dan were going to be over for “dinner”: aka, they bring the dinner and check on Eddie to make sure Venom wasn’t eating him. Which for the past several months, Eddie has been healthier than he has ever been. “Ok, here’s the deal, bud,” Eddie begins, “Annie and Dan are going to come over in about 18 minutes, we’ll eat, and watch a movie. And then when they leave we’ll talk about food, ok?”

**That seems reasonable…**

“Great,” Eddie said with a smile and lightly clapped his hands together, “so, wanna help clean up the place?”  
As planned, the couple showed up at 6:30pm with a movie and a taco casserole that happened to be Dan’s own recipe. Dinner had gone smoothly and they ate while watching whatever new romcom they had brought, which Venom made it clear he disliked. It wasn’t until 9:08pm did they finally decide that it was getting late and needed to head back home. Then not even minutes later all hell broke loose.

Avengers Tower

“Sir, I’m detecting abnormal activity in the apartment,” FRIDAY announced to the team, who were currently having drinks and watching a movie. The A.I. paused the movie and broadcasted the security cameras they had set up a week earlier. Everyone watched as Eddie tore open his fridge, pulling out a full raw chicken, sniffing it for a moment before ripping open the packaging. His jaw unhinged and a pointed tongue poked out to lick the raw meat, almost wrapping itself around the whole chicken before suddenly bringing it into his mouth to swallow whole, which Eddie seemed to have no problem with. However the size of the chicken was barely seen once he swallowed it, it was almost as if it dissolved as soon as it entered his throat.

“What the fuck?” Natasha whispered, watching the screen as she leaned forward to set her drink on the glass coffee table.

“Did you see the way his jaw unhinged? And that tongue??” Bruce exclaimed, he almost seemed amazed.

Tony rolled his eyes, “don’t get any ideas, Banner.”

Unfortunately for them, Eddie didn’t stop at the chicken… He then grabbed a package full of raw beef, barely taking the time to tear apart the packaging like he did with the first one. The journalist grabbed handfuls of the bloody meat and shoved them into his mouth until he was licking the packaging.

**_“Not enough. Need to hunt. Need the chemicals,”_ ** Eddie snarled, his voice sounding much deeper than it usually is… 

_ “No!” _ he suddenly shouted, pausing everything he was doing, though his hands and shoulders shook.  _ “We need to lay low. _ ”

What happened next, none of them would’ve expected. Black goo encased Brock head to toe with a sharp-toothed smile for a mouth and large curved opals for eyes.

**_“We’re tired of laying low,”_ ** the monster growled, moving towards the single window in the apartment, **_“we need some real food.”_ **

The beast crawled out of the window, shrinking slightly to fit. But within seconds they were gone and everyone’s drink had been forgotten with this being the first time any of them had gotten a good look at how big the symbiote actually was.

“I guess that settles it,” Tony began, “everyone back your bags, we’re going to San Francisco.”


	6. stalkerish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spider-Man run into Eddie on a mission, the Avengers attempt to capture Venom for the first time, and Eddie and V run off into the mountains...
> 
> “Wow, you’re way bigger than I thought you would be."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yikes this is kinda lowkey bad, sorry it took so long to write this shit

Peter sat awkwardly in the lobby of Stark’s old winter home as the rest of the Avengers came up with a game plan for later tonight in the basement-turned-lab, which Peter of course hadn’t been invited to. If he wasn’t allowed to do any actual fighting then why was he even there? Part of him wondered if it was just to get used to being in a different city. But even that didn’t make sense seeing as he’s fought on a different planet  _ and _ in a war! Peter looked up from his phone as his spidey sense alerted him that someone was approaching. 

“Hey, kid,” Tony called, giving him a small wave and a smile, “I got a job for you.”  
Spider-Man immediately beamed with excitement, “what is it Mr. Stark?? Do I get to go check out Mr. Brock’s apartment?? Or-- or hunt them down?!” 

“Ha ha, uh… Not so much,” the older man pursed his lips together, “but you do need to suit up. I need you to go around the city asking about the monster. Like, where he frequently hunts, that kinda stuff. Can you do that for me, kid? It’s  _ really _ important.”

“Oh…” Peter’s excitement immediately shrank, but he kept his smile up for Tony, “yeah, I can do that.”

“Great!” Iron Man pressed his hands together, “now go get suited up, we only have five more hours of sunlight!”

Peter gave a small nod before getting up from the chair and rushing across the lobby and into the emergency stairwell, which actually happened to be faster for him than the elevator. Within minutes he was dressed in his Spider-Man suit and had slung a backpack stuffed with some money and an extra set of clothes over his shoulder before rushing out of the mansion. But of course he stopped for a moment to take a picture with some teenagers that he had run into only five minutes into the mission. But soon after that he was on his way to visit where the most murders seemed to take place, most of the crime scenes still had faint blood stains… Unfortunately that was the most exciting portion of his mission. That is until he spotted none other than Eddie Brock himself walking on the sidewalk across the street and entering a sketchy convenience store.

“Uhhh, thank you, ma’am. That’s all the information I need!” Peter said apologetically to the older woman he was talking to and ran across the street, dipping into an empty alleyway to change into normal clothing behind a dumpster. He shoved his suit into the backpack he had brought and rushed down the sidewalk and into the store, attempting to act as casually as possible. The old woman behind the counter, looked away from her magazine for a minute to give him a raised brow. Peter showed her a half-hearted smile as he silently walked past her. As Spider-Man crept towards the back of the store (where all of the canned foods were) he could start to hear Eddie’s voice, talking as if he were on the phone. The young boy glanced around the shelf, watching Eddie as he picked up a can of refried beans.

“How about these?” he questioned the air, only to let out a huff and put the can back, “don’t knock it till you try it, bud.”

Peter leaned forward a bit and narrowed his eyes to get a better look, only to realize Eddie had a bluetooth earpiece in. Strangely enough the earpiece didn’t glow blue… which if it had been glowing it would indicate that he was on a call. He backed up so he was out of view, pulling out his new iPhone (at the courtesy of Tony Stark) to record a video. However when Peter poked his head around the shelf one more time, Eddie was nowhere to be seen. He quickly glanced around, only to yelp in surprise and jump into the shelf next to him when he found the journalist standing behind him.

“What-- how? Huh?!” Peter exclaimed in a low voice, confusion filled him. Why didn’t his spidey-sense work?

“What’s your deal, kid? Can’t a guy buy his beans in peace?” Eddie demanded with a sigh, clearing having had a long day.

“Nothing! I-- um…” the teenager racked his brain for an excuse before pulling his backpack off his back, pulling out a small notepad and a peng after rummaging through it for a moment, “I was wondering if I could get an autograph! I’m a huge fan of your show!”

Peter could see that he immediately relaxed and took the pen and paper from him, “you don’t seem like you’re from around here. It’s a little early for vacation, dontcha think?”  
“Oh um it’s fall break. I’m from… Minnesota. We have weird break,” he explained.

“Minnesota, huh? No accent though?” Eddie questioned, scribbling his signature onto the paper and handed it back to the kid.

Peter’s eyes widened as he realized his slip up. He struggled for a moment to put his things back into his bag, “uhhhhhhhhh… Yeah! I just moved there earlier this year. Before that I was in New… York.”

“Oh really? I used to live in New York,” Eddie mused.

“I heard! Um anyways, I gotta uh, I should go! Thank you for the autograph Mr. Brock!!!” Peter quickly exclaimed and rushed out of the store as fast as he could, his panic almost caused him to run out into traffic. Peter sprinted down the sidewalk, his heart was beating so hard that he could practically hear it in his ears.

Mr. Stark really needed to hear about this…

“What do you think that was about?” Eddie watched through the windows of the store as the kid bolted down the street.

**Don’t know, don’t care. Just buy the fucking refried beans, Eddie.**

“Dude, you need to chill out. If you really don’t want me to buy them then just say so.”

“You did  _ what?! _ ” Tony exclaimed, staring at Peter with wide eyes as the other Avengers sat around the room.

“I followed Mr. Brock into a store…” the teenager explained with a sigh before pulling out the notepad Eddie had signed to show the others, “I got his autograph too.”

“Kid, you could’ve gotten hurt,” Steve said calmly, taking a seat next to him on the couch.

“But he wasn’t hostile or anything, he seemed just kinda tired. He also just wanted to buy some beans…” Peter told them.

Bruce stepped forward, tapping his chin, “wait hold on, what did you say about him sneaking up on you? That he didn’t trigger your--”

“My spidey-sense. Yeah, it surprised the hell out of me!” he nodded.

Tony unfortunately didn’t care much about the details, “am I the only one who’s mad that he disobeyed my orders? What if this symbiote saw him as a threat and decided to pick a fight. We haven’t seen how powerful this thing is yet, and I’d rather not use the minor as a guinea pig!”

“Tony, relax. He came back in one piece, didn’t he?” Natasha pointed out with a sigh, “besides, he’s an investigative journalist with strong morals. All of the victims were criminals, right?” Tony gave a small nod and she continued, “so he’s not gonna attack in the middle of the day, and he’s definitely not going to attack some kid visiting San Francisco with his family.”

The billionaire folded his arms and thought for a moment, cocking his hip to the side a little bit before eventually letting out a heavy sigh through his nose, “fine. But I’m still keeping Peter in the house tonight. I don’t want him sneaking out and if the symbiote can track him, I want him to be safe. So that’s why Banner is gonna stay here with the kid.”

“What? Why me?” Bruce questioned, looking to Tony with a shocked and confused look.

“Because you’re the strongest. I’d rather not waste your energy out there,” he explained, though it wasn’t really a believable reason.

Peter leaned back into the couch, he couldn’t believe they were talking about him like he wasn’t even there. He could tell immediately that this was going to be a long, long night,

Later that night

Natasha and Clint sat in the building across from Brock’s apartment, watching him for a good three hours. Most of the time he worked on his article and watched tv, however the symbiote never showed itself. And it wasn’t until 3am did Brock leave the apartment. However, instead of leaving through the window as the monster like last time, they went out their door and onto the street as a human. 

“Brock is on the move, he’s headed north,” Natasha said to the others as she and Clint got up from their spot in the hallway and exited the building, being sure to keep at a far enough distance that they could see Eddie at all times. Well, that is until he disappeared into an alleyway, leaving the two Avengers to stand at the mouth of the alley alone and confused.

“Well that’s not concerning,” Clint grumbled under his breath.

The two jumped forward as they heard a small thump and a growl come from behind them. They quickly turned on their heels to find a nine-foot-tall, black, gooey monster with razor sharp teeth, and a long,  _ long _ tongue.

**“You shouldn’t have followed us…”** it snarled, opening its jaw as if it were to talk a bite of them but it quickly stopped, almost like it was having second thoughts on what it was likely about to do. It let out a low, seemingly frustrated snarl,  **“who are you?** !”

“Wow, you’re way bigger than I thought you would be,” Clint wheezed out, aiming an arrow at the monster’s head.

“Clint!” Natasha hissed to her friend.

**“The Avengers?** ” The monster said it almost like a question.  **“But they are so puny! We can take them.”**

“Who are you talking to?” Black Widow demanded. “Who is ‘we’?”

**“‘We’ is us! We are Venom. And** **_we_ ** **are going to bite--,”** before it could say anymore, Clint let his arrow free. The arrow landed right between Venom’s opal eyes, unfortunately the arrow only pissed it off. The monster ripped the metal stick from its impenetrable skin, narrowing its eyes as it studied the blinking red light. Venom looked up to see that Natasha and Clint were running further into the alleyway. And right as Venom was about to speak, the arrow suddenly exploded in its face, causing it to let go of the arrow and retract back into its host. Although it quickly recovered and let out a monstrous roar.

“Tony, Cap, I think you guys should get over her…” Clint informed the rest of the team.

_ “Oh ok, I guess I’m not really part of the team then? I’m just a volunteer?”  _ Bucky’s annoyed voice was heard through the earpieces Stark had given them.

“Barnes, this really isn’t the time!” Natasha whispered, looking around the dumpster to watch Venom run towards where they were hiding.

_ “We’ll be there in three minutes, tops,” _ Tony informed with a sigh.

Clint took out another arrow and shot it, and although Venom caught this one, it still blew up in its face. He flinched as it screeched in pain and tossed a trash can their way, “uh yeah, can we make it two?”

_ “Sure but I’ll have to leave these two grandpas behind. They’ll have to catch up.” _

_ “That’s fine, we’ve got your location,” _ Steve informed.

Venom’s long tongue slithered out of its mouth, almost like it was tasting the air. Natasha let out a small breath and plucked a small grenade-like device with speakers from one of the pouches along her belt whilst her friend kept the alien busy with exploding arrows. But with how fast Venom could regenerate, it wouldn’t be long until Cline ran out. She pressed a button on the top of the grenade and threw it directly at the symbiote, bouncing off the ground and landing right in between its feet. Venom let out a confused grunt and looked down, thinking for a moment before making the move to run. Unfortunately it wasn’t quick enough when the device went off. Although it didn’t explode, it let out an ear-piercing ring, causing Venom’s skin to ripple as he doubled over and wailed. But despite the excruciating pain it felt, it still attempted to cover its host’s face (as if they didn’t already know who it was) and crawl out of the alleyway. It was kinda… sad, honestly. But this was a man-eating parasite from space, so they couldn’t take any chances.

**“Eddie!”** Venom screeched. 

Natasha and Clint came out from their hiding spots, hesitantly approaching the monster, weapons ready. They watched as more and more of the symbiote disappeared underneath its host. Then suddenly, a whip of black goo shot between them, picking up the origin of their pain and quickly slamming it against the alley wall as hard as it could, effectively reducing it to pieces. Before they could even react to what just happened, Venom had recovered and ran directly out of the alley and by the time they followed it was already gone.

“Shit…” Natasha hissed.

“I knew something was gonna happen, it just seemed too easy!” Hawkeye exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

_ “Uh oh, what happened?” _ Tony questioned, his voice filled with dread,  _ “don’t fucking tell me it escaped.” _

“It escaped,” she confirmed.

_ “Damn and I was almost there too,” _ he clicked his tongue.

“New plan everyone, span out, try to find them. They couldn’t have gone far,” Steve ordered over the com, “Stark, I want you to send out some drones, it’ll make things easier. And I hate to say it, but we’re going to need Banner and Spider-Man to help out with this. Natasha, Clint, I want you to check out Brock’s apartment, he may stop there.”

Venom hid himself under Eddie’s skin as they crawled through their apartment window, causing Eddie to grunt when he tripped over his own feet and fell to the floor. The reporter rushed over to their unkempt bed and got down on their knees to pull out a backpack from underneath it. Eddie had made the smart decision of packing themselves a care package in case of an emergency such as being hunted by the Avengers, he had even gone as far as to purchase (illegally, of course) a plot of land with a small cabin in the middle of the woods to lay low in. And for obvious reasons this cabin had no running water or electricity. Eddie may not be the most careful person ever, but he knew what to do when things go sideways.

The backpack itself contained some food (though there was more at the cabin), a burner phone, a small laptop that he had put under a different name, a lighter, a notepad with a pen, and an extra set of clothes.

**Two people are coming up the stairs… We have about two minutes.** Venom informed.

“That’s fine, we’re done anyway,” Eddie grumbled, leaving his phone on table and making his way to the window, where Venom encased him once more and they disappeared into the city, careful to avoid Stark’s drones and the Avengers. They stuck to the shadows as they made their way through the city. Everything had gone perfectly, but of course Eddie wanted to stop by Anne’s apartment, just to let her know that they were leaving and wouldn’t be back for the foreseen future.

**Eddie, need to go** . Venom insisted as its host wrote a small note to his friend while they sat hidden on the front porch.

“Ok, ok. I’m finished,” he whispered back, folding the note and shoving it through the envelope slip in the door.

With that they were off. As they ventured out of the city it became much darker and quieter, and thankfully the drone sightings were much less frequent. And once they had reached the San Francisco and Daly City border they picked up a taxi and rode it all the way down to some place called Lobitos, where they paid their driver a little extra just to keep his mouth shut, which he didn’t seem to mind. 

“Ready to do some hiking?” Eddie questioned as they stood alone on the side of the road.

**Ready to sleep, Eddie. We’re tired.**

“I know, love. But we have to get to the cabin, and then we can sleep,” Eddie sighed and ran across the street to follow a winding road up into the wooded hills. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t realized how exhausted he really was with all of the adrenaline pumping through him. He was excited to get to the cabin, but even then would they really be able to rest? The Avengers were still searching for them as they speak. What if they get to Anne and kidnap her?

**Thinking too much, Eddie. You sleep, I’ll get us to the cabin.** Venom offered.

“You sure?” he questioned.

**Yes.**

With that Eddie closed his eyes, stumbling forward a bit as he fell asleep, thankfully Venom had caught them. His eyes opened to reveal complete blackness, glancing around before moving once again. It was going to be a long walk…

The Avengers sat around the living room as the sun began to rise; Clint and Bruce had fallen asleep, Natasha was scrolling a fan of Venom’s twitter feed (which of course this fan had saved every selfie and photo and posted it for themself), Bucky did the right thing of going back to his room to get some rest, Peter had been pouting in his room all night, and finally Steve and Tony continued to watch traffic cameras. They managed to spot Brock getting into a taxi right at the edge of San Francisco but then after they left Daly it was impossible to find them. At least they now know which direction he’s going, the only problem is that the ground they have to cover now.

“Do you think he was prepared for us?” Steve questioned, looking at the feed from the cameras in the apartment (which showed Eddie pulling a bag from out under his bed) on the TV.

“I mean, Brock is stupid but he’s not completely incompentent. He probably has a safe house somewhere off the grid, so we’ll want to look for a small building, possibly abandoned,” Tony sighed, taking a step back as he blew up the holographic map of the San Francisco area over the coffee table. “The cab he got into was caught by a traffic camera here, in Half Moon Bay, they stopped to get gas. Big mistake,” he stepped into the map to circle the area they had been spotted.

“Still doesn’t tell us where they went,” Steve said, leaning back into the couch with his arms folded over his chest.

Natasha finally decided to insert herself into the discussion, “my guess is that they’re somewhere in the mountains, far from any civilization.”

“Why is it always the mountains?” the captain pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Easy hiding. But also not that hard to find,” she informed.

“Sure but where would we even start? There are miles to cover and with what Brock gets paid it’s probably a tiny cabin, it would be invisible to satellite images even if it weren’t covered by the trees,” Tony mentioned, putting his hands on his hips.

Natasha hummed for a moment before getting up from her seat and stepping over to the map, studying where her colleague had circled before following the road down to a small community called Lobitos, eyeing it suspiciously. There would be no traffic cameras there and it would’ve been late enough that nobody would’ve seen Eddie being dropped off, and it was more than obvious that Eddie couldn’t go too far.

“They’re probably in Redwood Park,” she circled a large mountinous area on the map. “Heavily wooded and not far from home.”

“No far? That’s a fifty minutes drive. It’s like he wants to get caught…” Tony scoffed.

“Well they would need the rest of the night to hike into the mountains, that is assuming they didn’t have the driver take them to that town there,” she pointed to a town in the center of the park. “The hideout will most likely be higher up the mountain.”

Steve frowned, “why’s that?”

“Oh! I get what you’re saying!”

She nodded to Tony before explaining herself to Steve, “the symbiote doesn’t do so well in oxygen rich environments. If it were to somehow be separated from Eddie, it would last much longer on its own than it would at sea level.”

“I was thinking they would be stronger, but yeah that makes sense too,” Iron man shrugged, looking a little embarrassed with himself.

“You both could be right,” Steve told them, getting up from his seat on the couch, “good work guys. Now let's get some sleep so we can capture this thing tonight.” 

The cabin, as Venom assumed, was an absolute shit hole. A thick layer of dust covered every surface that the Klyntar could see (using Eddie’s eyes of course), it even hung in the air like a fog, causing them to let out a loud and painful sneeze. Venom wiped at their nose and stepped deeper into the cabin. To the left there was the kitchen and dining area, which didn’t look much different from their apartment, however the water from the sink came from an old well, making the water barely even drinkable. The resting area was towards the back of the cabin, with the bed leaning up against a small room to what must’ve been the bathroom, which Venom didn’t bother opening the door to. Then finally to the right was the living room that consisted of a rot-smelling couch sitting in front of a tv that must’ve been from the 80’s, it probably doesn’t even work anymore.

**“Eddie, we’re here,”** Venom spoke using its host’s mouth, waking him from his nap.

“Hm?” Eddie groaned, taking back control of their shared body. He let out a hefty yawn and instinctively rubbed his eyes before turning to glance out the window to see that it was much lighter out than it had been when he fell asleep, “what time is it?”

**The clock over the bed says it’s 8:23am.**

“Great, that means we get to sleep some more,” he shuffled his way over to the bed, tossing his bag on one of the dining table chairs as he passed it, though he immediately wished he had chosen the rotting couch as soon as he laid down. “Jesus fuck, this thing is like a rock!” Eddie hissed, squirming in his spot to find a comfortable position.

**Can help with that, Eddie.**

“You can? What would you--  _ oh _ ,” the reporter shut his mouth as a familiar black goo slowly cradled the back of his body, giving him something cozy to sleep on. “Uhh thanks, bud.”

**Go to sleep, Eddie. I will protect us.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah HA, y'all thought i was gonna have them get captured immediately, huh. not on my watch! sorry but i'm quirky like that hehe.
> 
> also, i promise i'll try to write a new chapter every week at MOST.
> 
> also-also, sorry there isn't any spooky nightmare boogey man in this chapter, wanted to focus mainly one the avengers and what they're thinkin, but i promise he will be back!!!


	7. knull

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie has a nightmare and the Avengers finally get to have a little chat with Venom...
> 
> “I am Knull. And I’m going to be the one to destroy your planet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> babies i am so so sooo sorry it took me so long to write this chapter, it ain't even that good smh. my life has just been kinda crazy this past week and a lot of mentally draining things have been happening and i just couldn't find the motivation to write. i hope y'all can forgive me!!

_ “Edward…” _

Eddie slowly opens his eyes to the sound of a rubbling voice, the first thing he notices is that he’s in the woods. His brows furrowed into a frown, as he glanced up at the starless sky, the clouds a striking orange against midnight blue, almost as if they were on fire. He blinked slowly and trudged forward into the forest, ignoring the red hot ash that blew past him. The deeper in he went, the brighter it got. The bark on the trees had been burned off, leaving glowing red cinders. Eddie paused his walking as he came upon the charred remains of what had been a deer, it was seemingly caught in an old bear trap and was unable to escape the flames. His heart panged for the creature but he kept on moving, there was nothing he could do for it now. It seemed as if he had been walking for hours when he finally reached a cabin engulfed in monstrous flames, which he had immediately recognized as theirs. 

Theirs?

A demonic screech of pain erupted from inside the cabin, pulling Eddie out of his hypnotic trance. Realization and anxiety hit the journalist like a brick wall at the sound of Venom’s scream. He needed to help it. Help his other. Eddie sprinted towards the open door, but as soon as he came within a foot of the cabin the door slammed itself in his face, causing him to fall back into the charred dirt. He scrambled back to his feet and pounded on the door, he opened his mouth to shout for Venom, but he found himself without a voice. The human came to understand that it was useless, the door wasn’t going to open no matter what he did. Tears filled his smoke-burned eyes and trickled down his face, sizzling as they hit the stepping stone in front of the door. Eddie let out a hiss and stepped away as the door became too hot to touch, and as soon as he was at a safe distance the windows of the cabin exploded, shooting glass everywhere. He quickly held his arms up to protect his face, though he still winced and let out a silent scream as pieces of glass lodged itself into his body.

After he managed to pull all of the larger glass shards out from where they protruded from his skin, he tugged his phone out with a shaky hand. He needed to call Anne. He needed to make sure she was ok. Eddie mouthed a curse as the tears in his eyes blurred his vision to the point where everything was splotches of red and brown and black. The reporter rubbed the tears away with a part of his sweatshirt sleeze that had yet been covered by soot.

_ “Do you see, Edward?” _

Eddie froze, slowly bringing his arm down to reveal the boogeyman from his other dreams standing not even five feet away from him. He was so close that he could count each one of the demon’s razor sharp teeth. His shoulders and torso were broad, though his limbs were gangly, his hands were large with claws at the end of each of his figners, and his platinum hair was long and tangled. But despite his demonic appearance, Eddie couldn’t look away from his ruby red eyes, glowing nearly as bright as the flames behind him.

See what?

_ “This.” _

With a blink, the setting around them had changed. The ground was no longer lumpy and soft and the tree behind him was much smaller and straighter, though that’s because it wasn’t a tree at all, it was the spire on top of a skyscraper. The demon was no longer standing in front of him either, but rather on the edge of the building, looking down at the city.

_ “Come look.” _

Eddie hesitantly pushed himself to his feet and approached the man. His eyes went wide at the flames that rose up from the streets and poked out of broken windows on the sides of buildings, the faint sound of screaming echoed off of the skyscrapers. He stared in horror as a helicopter spun out of control and crashed into a building in the distance. The reporter took a step forward to look down at the street, the road was an ocean of glistening black as far as he could see. It was just like Venom’s planet… Eddie staggered away, tripping over his heels and landing on his ass with a heavy “oof.”

Who was this guy?

_ “I am Knull. And I’m going to be the one to destroy your planet.” _

“Venom!!” Eddie shot forward with a gasp, breathing hard as sweat dripped down his face. The host could feel his other reaching every part of his body, he could tell it was attempting to forcibly calm their throbbing heart down. He swallowed thickly, attempting to get his breath under control before speaking. “Di- did you see?”

**Yes. Don’t speak, Eddie.**

Instead of listening, he went on about the dream, tears beginning to fill his eyes, “you fucking  _ died _ , V. You-,” a small sob erupted from his throat, interrupting his sentence. The symbiote emerged from their shared body, creating a torso and head to comfort Eddie, who immediately returned the tight hug.

**“Won’t die, Eddie. Just a nightmare,”** Venom whispered, nuzzling the side of his head.

“But, that guy, Knull. He- who is he?” Eddie put his hands on his other’s makeshift chest to gently push Venom away as to look up at it, searching its face for an answer.

**“I… I don’t know, Eddie,”** it admitted, slowly merging back into Eddie.  **But won’t let that happen, we saved Earth once, we can save it again.**

“Yeah… Yeah, you’re right…” he agreed with a shaky breath, though they could both feel the doubt in his mind. Eddie used the sleeve of his jacket (which he had fallen asleep in) to wipe the sweat from his brow and the tears from his eyes before pushing themself off the bed. He let out a heavy sigh and turned on the faucet of the kitchen sink, leaning down to take a sip of the suspiciously tan water, nearly gagging as soon as it hit his tongue. He quickly stood straight, wiping his wet lips on his jacket.

“Holy fuck that taste like shit!!” he wheezed, resting his forearms on the counter to study the murky liquid. “Is this even safe to drink?”

**No. But I can filter out the harmful chemicals.**  
“What about the taste?” Eddie questioned.

There was a moment of silence.

“V…?”

**Yes.** it finally said.

The answer wasn’t all that affirming but Eddie trusted the symbiote, nonetheless. He tentatively leaned forward once again and stuck his mouth under the rusty faucet, continually trying to convince himself that this was better than having no water at all, but he still decided against bathing in it. Just as Venom had said, he could change the taste, but it still vaguely tasted of iron. Thankfully for Eddie, that wasn’t an unfamiliar flavor to him… 

**We’re hungry, Eddie.**

He leaned away from the flowing water, “well, what time is it?”  
**It’s 10:19pm. We slept for a long time; over twelve hours.**

Eddie hummed and turned the faucet off, standing up to stretch out their stiff muscles with a heavy breath. “Alright, I guess we can go eat a deer or something.”

**Bear, Eddie!! Want to try bear.**

“I don’t know if we’ll find many bears… But sure, if we find a bear we can eat it,” he agreed with a laugh, the horrifyingly real nightmare he had just endured already slipping from his mind as Venom’s hunger became a more urgent priority. But he promised himself to think about it more in depth when they have a full stomach.

Seeing as Eddie had completely sweated through his outfit, he had decided to shed off the clothes he had been wearing and put on the fairly clean set he had brought with them; which did include a clean pair of socks, thankfully. After tugging on his shoes he stepped out of the cabin, taking a moment to breathe in air that wasn’t 70% dust… Eddie shut the door behind them and locked it, shoving the key into his pocket before letting Venom take over. 

It was barely even twenty minutes into their hunt when they spotted something large zooming over them, although they kept their suspicions and decided to stick to the trunks of trees, they continued to search for food. A few minutes later they spotted another one, getting a much better look this time.

_ Oh fuck. It’s one of Stark’s drones!! _

**We will destroy them if they see us.** Venom exclaimed via their mental link.

_ No! If we do that they’ll know where we are and we can’t risk that… It’s best if we just head back to the cabin. We’ll get our stuff and move on.  _ The host advised.

Venom let out an annoyed huff as they turned to run back from where they had originally come from, trying their best to be as silent as possible. 

**Fine… But if we see food on the way back, we will eat it.**

_ Only if we’re quiet. _

**Easy Peasey!** **Promise.** Venom gave a firm nod.

And of course when they spotted a deer halfway there, they were definitely, 100%, not quiet at all. A tendril of black goo shot from Venom’s hand to wrap around the deer just before it could dart off. They quickly retracted the slimey rope and dragged the deer across the forest floor with it, causing the creature to flail about and cry out in fear. As soon as it was within three feet of them, Venom grasped the deer’s neck with a clawed hand and swiftly bit the head off with its monstrous teeth, making sure it died a painless death. Although Venom loved the hunt and torturing their victims, it wasn’t as much fun when it came to animals. They were not bad guys. 

The crack of a twig somewhere in the distance snapped both of them out of their thoughts. They quickly devoured most of the deer before taking off once again. It was when they reached the cabin that they realized they should’ve just left without their things… Venom slowly slunk back into its host as they studied their temporary home from behind a thick tree trunk. They watched as a woman surrounded their cabin, stopping for a moment to shine a flashlight through one of the windows. With her wavy red hair, they quickly recognized her as Black Widow.

“Yep, it’s Brock’s, his bag and clothes are on the table,” she whispered to herself, most likely to a fancy Stark tech earpiece of some sort. 

**It’s just her, Eddie. We eat her, take our stuff, then run.**

_ We are not going to eat an Avenger! _ Eddie retorted, hating that he didn’t have the time to explain why eating one of Earth’s greatest heroes was wrong.

**We are also one of Earth’s--.**

_ V? What’s wrong? _ The human felt a familiar fear bubble up inside of them, just like the time they crashed their motorcycle.

**He’s here, Eddie. He’s watching us...**

Eddie frantically glanced around, though the man from their nightmares was nowhere to be seen, but it felt almost as though he were breathing right down their neck. But when he turned to look for him, the demon wasn’t there. 

“We don’t have time for this!” Eddie hissed quietly to himself, pressing his back against the trunk of the tree. His breath was becoming labored and his heart was beating so hard that he could hear it in his ears, and he couldn’t tell if this was Venom or himself that was causing him to act this way. All he knew was that they could not afford this type of distraction right now. “V, we need to get it together,” he wheezed softly.

“Wait… I think I see something, everyone meet at the cabin, I may need backup...”

When Eddie collected enough courage, he carefully glanced around the tree, only to find Black Widow staring towards their direction. 

“What the hell is that…?” she mumbled, they watched her as she slowly put her hand on her gun from where it hung on her belt. It was then that they realized she was even staring directly at them. She was staring at something behind them.

Eddie could feel Venom’s fear envelop him completely. He swallowed thickly and turned around, his whole body shaking from head to toe, already having an idea of who it is. There, lurking in the dark, several feet away was  _ him _ , the horrifying man with the sunken red eyes and evil aura.

“Knull…” Eddie breathed, feeling as though he were frozen.

It was then that Venom’s instincts told them to move, the symbiote gained control of Eddie’s limbs and forced him to scramble to their feet and run as far away from Knull as quickly as they could. Venom didn’t care where they went, as long as it wasn’t near him. Even the thought of being captured by the Avengers seemed better at this moment.

“Shit! Brock just ran past me, someone take him down!!” Black Widow ordered, chasing after them the best she could, it was almost as if Knull had been completely forgotten.

“Already on it!” A voice from above replied, causing Eddie to look up in confusion. There, flying ten feet above them was none other than Iron Man with an arm outstretched aimed at them. Before they could even think to dodge out of the way, a single dart shot from Iron Man’s shoulder and hit them directly in the back. They tripped over their own feet and landed face first into the rocky dirt, undoubtedly scrapping their face. Eddie attempted to push themself off the ground but immediately slipped.

“Wha-- What the fuck…?” he slurred, his eyes beginning to feel heavier and heavier by the second. “V…” he whispered out before his vision went dark.

Something was bothering Natasha. A lot of things bothered her, like the way Tony cut his sandwiches, or how Bruce doesn’t eat his popcorn with butter, or even how Steve and Tony are always arguing on who’s the better leader. But this wasn’t like all of those other things.

She sat in the corner of the basement on a swivel chair in front of a desk, staring at the live security footage of the cage they had built to hold Venom. Well, at least with the little knowledge they had on symbiotes, they still needed to contact Thor and the other guardians. Eddie was currently laying in a fetal position on the floor of the prison, twitching every few minutes. Everyone else moved about the room, Tony and Bruce were studying scans they had taken of Eddie while he slept (they found that he had an abnormally high temperature and resting heart rate, and he weighed much more than he should have). Steve, Bucky, and Peter sat not far from them, though only Steve at least had the courtesy of pretending he understood. But Natasha was certain Peter really did understand, she figured he was more excited to see Tony’s more nerdy side than anything.

“What’s got you so worked up?” Clint questioned, looking up from his phone from where he sat beside her. But when she shrugged and leaned back in her seat, he automatically knew, “c’mon, you’re making that face you make when something is bothering you.”

Black Widow clicked her tongue before turning to him with a smile, “you know me too well.”

“Spill the beans, Nat. You’re not falling for Brock, are you?” he questioned jokingly, “I mean, you have been staring at that screen for quite a while!”

“Shut up, Barton,” Natasha rolled her eyes. “No, I’m not ‘falling’ for him.”

“Ok then, so what is it?”

She let out a soft sigh. “Capturing Brock seemed too easy. They didn’t even fight back. When he ran out from the trees, it was like he was running from  _ something _ .”

Hawkeye frowned and tilted his head, thinking for a short moment before replying. “Uhh yeah, he was running from us.”

“Listen, there was something else out there besides us and Brock,” she began, turning her chair to face Clint, “I saw something in the woods, I could feel it. And I’m sure he could too. The way he was running was frantic, like he was scared of something. The symbiote could’ve easily killed me right there, but it didn’t…”

“Do you think it’s another symbiote?” he questioned.

Natasha shook her head, “I don’t think so. As soon as I got distracted by Brock, it was like the feeling was never there. And I nearly forgot about it until now…”

_ “Mr. Stark, Edward Brock has woken up,” _ F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced.

Natasha and Clint immediately turned their heads towards the monitors where they watched Eddie slowly push himself onto his hands and knees with a groan.

_ “V?” _ Brock spoke to the air.

“Who the hell is ‘V’?” Tony questioned.

Black Widow glanced over her shoulder to see that everyone had already found themself crowded around the desk to figure out what was happening. 

“Maybe it’s what he calls the symbiote?” Peter replied.

On the screen, Eddie carefully got to his feet, only to stumble backwards. Though before he even hit the ground, ropes of black goo shot from his body to attach themselves to the opposite wall, keeping Eddie from falling. As soon as he was able to stand properly he looked around, his eyes eventually falling on the camera in the corner of the room, to which Eddie frowned and gave it the middle finger.

_ “Dude! Seriously??” _ he exclaimed weakly and used his free hand to push his arm down, as if he weren’t in control of it.

“So, who wants to interview him first?” Bucky spoke, glancing at the other Avengers.

“I’ll do it,” Natasha announced quickly, already getting up from her seat.

Bruce frowned, clearly wanting to be the first one to have the opportunity to talk to and study a perfect symbiote-human bond. “Wait why does she get to go?” he pouted.

She gave him a smile, “because I need to ask him something.”

“Well that was vague,” Tony grumbled, watching her walk out of the room, turning back to the screen as soon as she was out of view.

The cell in which Eddie and Venom were in was in a storage room (previously a graveyard for abandoned projects) three doors down from where everyone was watching. The room itself wasn’t any larger than your average McDonald’s, and their cage sat in the back, a thick clear wall cutting off the back half of the room. Natasha pulled a chair off of the stack of chairs that they hadn’t had time to remove, and placed it a few feet from the glass wall before taking a seat and crossing one leg over the other.

“Hey there, Mr. Brock. I’m--,” she began before she was rudely interrupted.

“Black Widow,” Eddie answered, taking a step towards the glass, “we know who you are.”

“‘We’?” Natasha repeated.

Brock gave her a spiteful look and folded his arms over his chest, “yeah, ‘we.’”

“What do you mean by that?” she questioned, leaning her elbows on her legs.

“Me and my other.”

Natasha raised a brow, “you mean the parasite?”

She watched as Eddie flinched back, his face turning into a hideous scowl that was just shy from being inhuman. “It is  _ not _ a parasite,” he gritted his teeth, “it’s a purely symbiotic relationship.”

“So what do you get out of all the people it kills and eats?” Natasha leaned forward slightly in her seat, resting her elbows on her legs. She watched as Eddie thought for a moment, he had turned his torso to the side slightly and made faces at himself for a moment before letting out a sigh, looking back at the Avenger and answering her question.

“Free healthcare, I guess? I keep us fed, and it keeps us healthy. I can break all my bones and be healed within minutes,” Eddie crossed his arms over his chest with a blank face. Though suddenly his cheeks flushed bright red (so red it reached his ears), his eyes went wide, and he pursed his lips into a thin line.

She narrowed her eyes and studied his change of expression, he seemed… embarrassed? “Everything ok, Mr. Brock?” she questioned.

“Mhmm,” he squeaked before clearing his throat, “yeah, we’re just peachy.”

“You know, you seem to be doing a lot of the talking… Is there a way I can speak with the symbiote?” Natasha tilted her head to the side and gave him a small smile; not the seductive kind of smile, but the one you would give to a child when you try to get them to admit to you if they broke something. But, Eddie wasn’t that naive.

“Why would you want to?”

“Are you saying it can’t or that you won’t let it come out. Doesn’t seem very symbiotic, if you ask me. Aren’t you supposed to be equal?” she pressured.

The investigative journalist rolled his eyes, “oh please, we’re not going to fall for that. We know exactly how we are.”

“I want to ask it some things,” Black Widow said, “I just want to get some answers, Mr. Brock. I’ve heard your side of the story, but I want to know what the symbiote is thinking.”

“Give us a moment,” he held up a finger and slowly stepped towards the back of the cell, quietly mumbling to himself for a couple minutes. “No, I’m not-- so what? I thought we decided I do the talking. Love-- fine…” he eventually let out an irritated sigh and walked back to the glass, “fine. You guys can talk…”

Natasha watched as black slime emerged underneath Brock’s clothing and covered him head to toe. He slowly grew taller as well, standing at about nine feet, unfortunately the room was much shorter than that and the monstrous alien had to crouch slightly as to not hit its head on the ceiling. It opened its opalescent eyes that seemed to stare into Natasha’s soul, and it’s twisted grin was filled with hundreds of razor sharp teeth, in between the rows of fangs poked out a long pink tongue, acting as though it was tasting the air.

“Hello again, I’m--.”

**“Black Widow,”** the beast hissed, **“yesss, we know who you are. You threw a loud bomb at us.”**

“Sorry about that, but you tried to eat me and my friend,” Natasha excused, leaning forward in her seat slightly to get a closer look at the symbiote. 

It gave a small shrug,  **“I was only trying to protect us. Eddie said we had to be careful otherwise we would be taken apart and experimented on.”**

“Well unless you don’t answer my questions and if you don’t cooperate it may come to that,” she admitted.

**“NO!”** the symbiote shouted, slamming it’s clawed hands against the glass. Quickly it’s anger faded nearly as soon as it came, it took a small step away from the glass and let out a low snart,  **“Eddie is a loser, he will perish without me!”**

Natasha couldn’t help but crack a smile and raise a brow at it, “a loser?”

**“Yes! The biggest loser on the planet,”** it let out a dark chuckle before suddenly biting down on its tongue, all on its own, causing it to let out a pained yowl.  **“What the fuck, Eddie??! Just telling the truth.”**

“Brock has control too?”

**“Sometimes… but I control us most of the time. Eddie controls the wimpy human body,”** it explained,  **“Eddie calls it compromise.”**

Natasha gave a small nod to show her understanding and leaned back in her chair. Thinking for a moment about her next question. She watched the symbiote’s mannerisms while she thought, noticing that they weren’t far off from the host. She cleared her throat quietly before speaking, “back in the alley last night, you called yourself ‘Venom.’ Is that really your name?”

**“Yes. We are Venom,** ” it hissed out, as if in an attempt to be intimidating.

“Well, ‘Venom’, there’s something I would like to ask you…” she began slowly, standing up from her seat and moving closer to the window, “back when we were at the cabin, I felt something, and I know you felt it too. You were running from something and not just us. What were you so afraid of?”

Venom suddenly froze, it’s eyes wide, Natasha could see the fear in them. Clearly she struck a nerve, “Venom? Who was that in those woods…?”

The monster immediately disappeared to reveal a shocked host. Eddie gripped the front of his shirt and stumbled backwards, attempting to control his labored breath. “V? It’s ok, he’s not-- he’s not here!” he wheezed to his other. “If anyone can protect us, it’s the Avengers.”

Natasha flinched as her earpiece let out an ear-piercing ring for a short moment.

_ “Nat? What’s happening? What’d you say to it??” _ Tony demanded through the small speaker in her ear.

“I think we might have another problem to fix…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha clowns, y'all thought my boys were even capable of taking down the avengers???? *honestly they probably could last a little bit if they really tried but i wanted to make things spicy* bc i'm "nOt LiKe OtHeR fAnFiC wRiTeRs"


	8. guardians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie and Venom have been captured by the Avengers and taken back to Avengers' HQ in NYC. Tony and Bruce call the Guardians about the symbiote and learn a thing or two. And Peter, Ned, and Shuri plan a jailbreak...
> 
> “I don’t think they have lawyers for aliens."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so i know they're supposed to be in san francisco but i forgot and wrote this whole thing with ned and i liked it too much to start over smh. so i'm just gonna say that while eddie/venom were knocked the fuck out, they were taken back to nyc. so then when they escape they're like "haha bruh where tf are we??? like deadass??????"
> 
> also-- FUCK DUDES I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME SO LONG. no cap the summer sucked asssss and i was trying to find a job and work a bunch of shit out. but now i have a full time job, i make bank, and i'm doing pretty good.

“So are you saying there is something out there that  _ they’re _ afraid of? And it’s not just us?” Bruce questioned from where he stood, leaning against a table.

Natasha gave a small shrug and a hefty sigh, “possibly. I can’t be certain if it’s just in their head or not, but there was definitely something else in those woods last night.”

“Are you sure it’s not just his schizophrenia rubbing off on you?” Tony stood from his spot at the conference table and made his way over to where she was standing, though it was clear he wasn’t being serious. But Steve, nonetheless, rolled his eyes at the suggestion.

“Stark, we talked about this. They misdiagnosed him with schizophrenia because of the symbiote, he never was actually mentally ill. Well, aside from maybe a narcissistic personality disorder and depression.”

“But it still could be a possible side effect of the symbiote messing with his brain chemistry, right?” Bruce began, “I mean, we still barely know anything about this creature and I honestly doubt Brock knows much about it.”

Black Widow pursed her lips and thought for a moment, cocking a hip to the side, “how do you explain what I saw?”

“Well, this isn’t the first time we’ve encountered an alien with powers, it might’ve projected it’s fear and made you feel it too,” Tony wondered, scratching the back of his neck, “I’m going to be real with you, I honestly have no fuckin’ idea. We’re shooting in the dark here.”

It was then that Clint finally decided to speak up, he and Bucky had been sitting off to the side watching the whole thing play out. They were both mostly there for the fighting, neither of them knew shit about science or alien biology. Well, neither did Natasha, but she was very assertive and she’s usually right about things.

“I’m starting to think this is something we should call Thor about. I mean, he’s travelled all across space, you’d think maybe he might know,” the archer said, “or maybe even Captain Marvel if she’s available.”

Eddie quickly paced the small glass prison with worry, attempting to work out a plan to escape. They had already checked the corners of the room and even the seams of the glass door, which of course were, well, _ seamless _ . Completely airtight. What were they going to do? What if Knull shows up again? They wouldn’t be able to escape. What if the Avengers separate them? They’re not that cruel, right? Stark might be but--

**Eddie! Stop thinking so much, you are going to waste our energy with all of this useless walking around.** Venom hissed at him.

“Hm? Oh. Right, yeah,” the human paused his pacing, as if just realizing he was doing it. He let out a small breath and took a seat on the shitty excuse of a bed that sat against the back wall. It felt as though he was sitting on a white rock, but at least it wasn’t as bad as the dusty bed back at the cabin.

**I’m… sorry about this, Eddie. Should’ve listened to you.**

“I know, love,” Eddie leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs so he could hold his cheeks in his hands, “but there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

**We should demand a lawyer! We deserve a phone call!** Venom spat.

The notion made him chuckle and shake his head, “I don’t think they have lawyers for aliens. And I definitely don’t think we’re getting a phone call…” He moved his gaze up to the security camera in the corner of the room.

**So we will escape and eat them?**

“How, V?” Eddie leaned back against the wall with a hefty sigh, running a hand through his hair, which definitely needed a wash by now. “We can’t just-- ya know. Listen, we wouldn’t even be in this mess if you weren’t such a glutton.”

**WHAT?! Apologize!**

“No! We both know I’m right!” the host shot back, folding his arms over his chest, “we’ve been eating way too much recently. We’ve gained lots of weight!”

**Saving it for later, for situations like this where we cannot get food!** Venom hissed.

“We shouldn’t even  _ be _ in situations like this,” He rolled his eyes and scoffed, getting up from his spot on the bed and pacing the room once again. “Whatever happened to never letting the Avengers capture us, huh, big guy??”

There was a moment of silence, Eddie almost actually began to think that he won the argument. That is until he began to feel a mix of anger and guilt.

**Couldn’t take any chances, Eddie!**

“Ha!”

**Do not laugh!!**

“Oh please!!” he wiped a tear from his eye as he laughed, “says the head-eating parasite who decided to make a _ public social media account _ to show us off!”

That was the last straw, the symbiote let out a deep growl within their mental link before pinning Eddie to the wall and holding his body still. The journalist sucked in a sharp breath at the sudden movement, though he tried not to struggle and decided to wait a moment for Venom to release him. However, when he attempted to rip his arms from the wall, he was left to no avail.

“Uhh… V? Babe?” Eddie questioned, his heart beginning to race with panic. He watched a Venom’s head emerge from the front of his chest before stopping to hover inches away from his face.

**“Not a parasite,”** it hissed,  **“and if anyone is to blame for our situation it’s you!”**

“What?!” he exclaimed, attempting to lean further away from Venom, though the wall refused to let him. “How?”  
**“Could have gone off the grid like I said, become vigilantes like that Spider-Man we saw on the news the other day.”**

Eddie’s anxiousness washed away as he couldn’t help but let out a laugh, “yeah right! We’d probably seem even more dangerous! Besides you probably wouldn’t stopped whining about not having a tv.”

**“Maybe if--”**

“ _ Jesus christ will you two just shut the fuck up? _ !” A voice shouted through the small speaker in the middle of the ceiling. 

“ _ Buck, calm down, we’ll just put them on mute _ ,” another voice said.

_ “What? We can’t do that, what if they try putting together a plan to escape,”  _ someone exclaimed.

_ “How will they escape? The cell is airtight,” _ a voice they easily identified as Tony Stark retorted, with that the intercom made a clicking noise and it was silent.

Venom let out an annoyed groan and sunk back into Eddie’s chest, dropping him to the floor a moment later, causing him to let out a small ‘oof’ as he hit the ground. The journalist took a deep breath and got to his feet, walking back over to the bed. He felt tired, he wasn’t sure if it was the stress, or the arguing, or all of the running around they’ve been doing. What time was it? How long have they even been here? Hours seemed like days. Where even were they? A white room with nothing in it did nothing good to the human mind. It made Eddie feel lucky he had his other here to keep him company. Speaking of his other…

“Hey, bud?” He spoke up softly, taking a seat on the bed. The only reply he received was a low growl in the back of his mind, which he knew he deserved. “I’m sorry for getting mad at you… The past couple days have just been kinda rough, and I shouldn’t be blaming you for this. I knew the Avengers were going to catch on someday, I just didn’t think it’d be this soon. I hope you can forgive me…”

When Venom didn’t immediately speak up, he let out a sad sigh and closed his eyes. Makes sense that it wouldn’t reply to him, he’d be pretty mad at him too.

**“Forgive you, Eddie,”** a rough voice spoke. Eddie opened his eyes to find Venom’s head hovering inches away from him.  **“I am also partly to blame… But this is mostly your fault! Because you are a bigger loser than I am.”**

The human snorted, “thanks, love.”

A few hours later (the time was now 10:45pm) it was Peter’s turn to monitor Brock and his symbiote, which was pretty boring for the most part. Most of the adults, including Clint, Natasha, Steve, and Bucky went back to the living room to have a few drinks and relax while Tony attempted to contact Thor and the Guardians and Bruce worked on some saliva and blood samples they had took from Eddie’s body while he was passed out; thankfully the alien wasn’t able to attack them at the time. Peter sighed softly as he watched the reporter snicker to himself, something the symbiote said must’ve been funny. They had quickly concluded that Eddie was able to hear what it said in his own head yet he seemed to have trouble talking back to it through his mind.

Peter hit the mute button on the live security footage and carefully stood from his chair, making sure he made as little noise as possible so he’ll be able to sneak by Stark. Although Banner quickly noticed him and gave Peter a confused look but he didn’t question him, instead he went back to work. He was almost to the door when Tony finally realized he wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

“Peter? Where are you going?” he questioned sternly.

“Uhh… the bathroom,” Peter replied, hoping he didn’t appear too nervous.

Iron Man gave him a skeptical look but then quickly turned back to his holographic screen, though he watched the boy leave the room out of the corner of his eye.

As soon as the lab door shut behind him he took off down the hall, nearly tripping over himself as he reached the room that held Eddie Brock. He stood for a moment, debating on whether he should put on his mask or not, but they had already seen his face… And it seems they have heightened senses so they may recognize his scent. Peter let out a small sigh, and pressed a button on the side of the door, watching his slide open to reveal Eddie having a whispered conversation with himself, though he quickly stopped and turned to Peter when they heard the door open. 

“I um… Hello, Mr. Brock,” the teenager introduced himself, stepping inside the room so the door could slide shut behind him. “I’m--”

“The kid that asked for our autograph,” Eddie cut him off, getting up from his spot on the bed to step up to the glass, folding his arms. “I knew there was something off about you.” His expression changed for a split second, a brow twitched and he pursed his lips just slightly but he didn’t say anything else. 

“My name is Peter, I wanted to ask you some questions…” The young Spider-Man tried his best to seem like he knew what he was doing but seeing as Eddie was a professional(ish) investigative journalist (and a successful one at that, not counting the time he got run out of New York or the time everyone thought he was crazy) and saw right through him. Actually, just about anyone could see right through him, but Peter liked to think he was doing an ok job, at the least.

Eddie let out a snort and sat down on the bed, “Let me guess, Stark doesn’t know you’re here.”

His cheeks flushed a dusty pink, guilty as charged, “maybe… But promise me you won’t tell him? He never would’ve let me come in here alone, but I really need to talk to you.”

“Yeah sure, kid. What’ve we got to lose?”

“Cool! Ok, so uhh….” the teenager pulled a small notepad from his back pocket and flipped through it, looking back up at Eddie when he found the right page, “how does the whole body sharing thing work?”

He shrugged softly, “well, we have agreements on what is a ‘me’ thing and what’s a ‘we’ thing. When it’s a ‘me’ thing it keeps quiet while I work. But most of the time it’s a ‘we’ thing; taking a shit, sleeping, grocery shopping, eating dinner at a friend’s. That kinda stuff.”

Eddie watched as Peter scribbled in his notepad, “so uh, what about eating? I know you like… eat people. Like do you do it? Or does the symbiote? Can it digest bones?”

“Hunting is still a ‘we’ thing, but my other takes charge, I let it do most of the work,” the reporter explained with a sigh before he let out a sharp yelp, “ok it’s not that I let it, it’s something we just silently agreed to do. And yes, we can digest bones. We only hunt bad people, people who wouldn’t be missed. We’re not evil.”

“Isn’t that like… cannibalism though? Can’t you eat something else?” He questioned, looking up from his notes. “I know you really like chocolate and raw meat. Mr. Stark had FRIDAY find different chemicals that were in chocolate, high protein foods, and human brains but there were too many things that matched up so it was kinda impossible to figure out which one was the right one.”

The man thought for a moment, muttering something under his breath before answering Peter, “I’m not very good with science or anything but I know you were right about it being a certain chemical. It’s phenethylamine.”

“Oh!” he exclaimed, quickly jotting it down, “like the love chemical?”

“Wh-- We uh… we didn’t know it was a love chemical,” Eddie’s cheeks were dusted pink, though they deepened even further. “Oh my bad,  _ I _ didn’t know it was a love chemical! Why would I know it was a love chemical? Oh my god so that’s why-- j _ esus christ, V _ .”

Peter smiled at him, it was interesting to see Eddie relax a bit; despite being in a prison that would make any normal person go mad. Maybe they weren’t so bad after all. Maybe Mr. Stark and the Avengers are wrong about them being a threat to humanity.

“Black? Slime-like? Eats heads? Is a parasite?? Oh yeah, it’s definitely a threat to humanity,” Star Lord snickered on the screen. “It’s a Kylntar, and they’re pretty nasty. Almost got killed by one once. Better burn that thing while you have the chance. If there’s one, there’s probably thousands.”  
Tony and Bruce let out soft groans of disappointment and annoyance. Disappointed that they won’t be able to recruit a super as powerful as Venom/Eddie to be their newest Avenger. And annoyed that they’d now have to hunt down and actively search for more symbiotes around the world, and it’s only been a few weeks since they killed Thanos and saved the world once again.

“Great,” Tony sighed before glancing to Thor, who stood beside Peter Quill with a troubled look, “what’re you thinking Thor?? Got anything you might want to add?”  
The god hummed for a moment before looking at them through the screen, “Quill might be wrong, you did say that the rest of the Kylntar were killed? The rest died in the labs and one being killed in an exploding rocket, and the last one is with this Eddie Brock. It is possible that it could have produced ospring, but...” he paused for several moments, “what is Brock’s relationship with the Kylntar?”  
“It seems complicated,” Bruce began, stepping forward, “Brock’s vitals aren’t exactly healthy for a human, but he doesn’t appear to be dying. For the most part he seems to get along with the symbiote pretty well. He even has a nickname for it and even calls it ‘love’ or uh… ‘babe.’”

“Interesting…” Thor mused. 

Peter made a disgusted face, “man that’s just weird. That’s like taking Stockholm Syndrome to the next level.”

“It’s rare for a Klyntar to look out for and care for their host, physically and emotionally. It’s considered forbidden among them and any who break away from their parasitic nature are considered outcasts and they most likely either kicked off the planet or they are eaten by the other Kylntar,” the Asgardian explained, folding his arms over his chest.

“Wait Thor, what was it you said about it producing offspring?” Tony brought up.

He immediately beamed like a child, “ah, yes! Klyntar are able to produce offspring asexually, all they need to do is prepare to separate a portion of themself, then the offspring just falls off the parent’s body! Once the offspring matures, they leave it to fend for itself! Since they don’t necessarily have male and female, they’re all able to reproduce on their own at any time. They’re quite interesting creatures!”

“Great, just great,” Iron Man sighed before quickly remembering something. “Oh, right! Also do you have any idea of what might scare a symb-- a Kylntar. Something that isn’t fire or a loud noise?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure,” Thor thought for a long moment, “Klyntars mostly act on instinct. They infest, eat, move to the next host. They’re a hive mind, though if a Klyntar is separated from the rest for too long, they are no longer connected to the hive. I’m not certain but I believe they have some sort of leader, the one who created all symbiotes. Though he has not been seen for thousands of years. Some believe he is dead, others say he is on Klyntar, their actual planet. Though no one has ever seen it and lived to tell.”

“Um… hey Tony,” Bruce cleared his throat, stepping away from the holographic screen to take a look at the security cameras, “didn’t Peter say he was going to the bathroom?”

“--and then, I caught Captain America’s shield and was like ‘sup’, and then I had to fight the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but we’re all chill now,” Peter explained excitedly, his notes completely forgotten in his lap. 

“We’re glad you didn’t get hurt, you’re just a kid. We can’t even believe Stark actually made you fight a bunch of grown men who have had years of fighting experience. Who even does that?” he snapped, clicking his tongue. Though he couldn’t help but sigh at something his other said, “V, for the last time, we’re not eating--.”

“What the hell are you doing in here?!” a loud (and very angry) voice bellowed through the room, causing both of them to whip their heads towards the door to see Tony Stark standing in the doorway with Bruce behind him.

“I wanted to talk to him, I just don’t think he’s all that bad,” Peter said weakly, giving a small shrug, “I even found out what chemical it is that they need.”  
“You did? What is it?” the Hulk questioned quickly.

“Bruce, he just did exactly what I told him not to do, what if he got hurt?!”

“How would I have gotten hurt?” Peter shot back, leaping up from his chair, “he’s in an airtight box, Mr. Stark.”

“What if he convinced you to break him out, and then what?!”

“But he’s not a bad guy!”  
“He eats people, Peter!”

Venom quickly encased Eddie, punching the glass, though it barely even cracked,  **“Do not yell at the human child, Stark, or we will eat you.”**

Tony chuckled, not taking their threat very seriously. Though if given the chance, they would most definitely eat him, despite Eddie telling his other ‘no.’ The millionaire looked away from Venom, who was slobbering up the glass with their massive tongue while Bruce watched with disgust and fascination. 

“Peter, go to your room,” Iron Man let out an irritated sigh, stepping aside as the boy marched past him and seemingly to his room.

Which he did actually go to his room… to get dressed in his Spider-Man suit and leap from his 36th story window. He had long gotten over the slight fear he felt when jumping off and out of tall buildings. Peter swung from his webs through the streets, occasionally waving to late-night party goers who shouted up to him, but he had no time to stop for pictures, he was on a mission. It wasn’t long until he reached the window to a friend’s apartment window. He clung to the wall as he glanced through, spotting his best friend, Ned, playing Final Fantasy IV on his gaming computer at his desk, in the dark. The first time he knocked, Ned wasn’t able to hear him from his noise-isolating headphones. 

The spider boy let out a sigh through his nose and knocked harder. Still no response. He groaned softly and tested to see if the window was unlocked, and thankfully it was. Ever since Ned found out he was Spider-Man, he’s been leaving his window unlocked just in case he wants to chill after webbing up criminals, though occasionally Ned’s mom will lock it.

Peter carefully slid through the window and quietly made his way over to Ned to lightly tap him on the shoulder. Although he didn’t mean to scare him, Ned still leapt from his seat, causing his headphones to get ripped from his head and fall to the floor. He held his hands in front of him, ready to hit whoever had snuck into his room. Though Ned quickly relaxed when he saw it was just his friend.

“Jesus christ, Peter. You were about to give me a heart attack,” he breathed, taking a seat on his bed as he attempted to calm his racing heart. “Couldn’t you have texted me or something to let me know you were coming over?”  
“I did. Didn’t you see it?” 

Ned frowned and pulled his phone from his pocket, his homescreen had a text notification from Peter, “oh, oops. Sorry dude, I was really into my game. What’s up? I thought you were in San Francisco.”  
“I was, but we just got back like, twelve hours ago,” Peter shrugged softly, sitting at the desk chair that Ned was in not long ago. He quickly shook his head and changed the subject, “anyways, I gotta tell you what happened.”

“Wasn’t this mission super top secret though?”

“Eh, a little bit. But I can tell you.”

“Cool, cool,” Ned nodded in understanding.

“Ok so, we were called to San Francisco because this monster thing was eating criminal’s heads and turns out it was Eddie Brock--.”

“From ‘The Brock Report’?!”

Peter nodded excitedly, “yeah! I even got his autograph while I was stalking him! So anyways, the Avengers captured him in the woods and I guess there’s something else they were running from but Mr. Brock hasn’t told us anything about that. And then they captured Brock and we flew back to headquarters here and he’s in a special cell in our basement--.”  
“That sounds kinda inhumane, dude…” Ned interrupted.

“Dude, right?! And turns out he has this alien parasite that lives in his body and they eat human heads because they need this one chemical to survive. It’s in chocolate and raw meat, but it’s not nearly enough for their appetite, right? Also I’m like 90% sure Mr. Brock and this alien are a couple, not gonna lie.” Peter explained quickly, “so, I was talking with them and they’re pretty chill. Like, they’re not bad people or anything. They’re kinda like Anti-Heroes.”

“Like that Deadpool guy that Mr. Stark tells you to stay away from?” he questioned with a slight frown.

“Yeah!! Except Deadpool will kill anyone, except children. He definitely draws the line at kids,” Peter folded his arms over his chest at the thought of the loud and psychotic mutant before continuing. “So basically, I need your help to break Mr. Brock out.”  
“Whoa, dude, seriously??” Ned honestly looked pretty honored, but also slightly concerned and nervous.

“I mean, you did hack into the suit Mr. Stark made me,” the young Spider-Man shrugged softly.

His friend scratched the back of his neck, “I mean, yeah, and I love being your guy in the chair but going from a suit to a building is a lot, man. Maybe we should call Shuri, she’s wayyy better at hacking stuff than me. Even Tony Stark admitted she was smarter than him.”

Peter nodded in agreement, “yeah… That’s probably smart. I’ll send her a text.”

It didn’t take long to get everything set up. Of course Shuri was a little suspicious, though she admitted to having been waiting for a moment like this to see how easy it would be to hack into the Avengers’ headquarters. Plus she agreed that Brock at least deserved a phone call, and food. Though in the middle of their planning Tony had called Peter to ask him where he was, which he was quick to tell him that he was playing video games with Ned. Which wasn’t a complete lie, he was really with Ned, but they were far from playing video games. 

Finally, after an hour of planning, they were ready to carry out their plan. Shuri had instructed Ned on how to hack into the security cameras throughout the lower levels of the building so he could see if anyone was downstairs, thankfully the basement was empty at the moment and just about everyone had gone to their respective rooms. This way, Ned could still be the guy in the chair while Shuri unlocked the cell and disabled the alarm systems so FRIDAY wouldn’t alert Stark that Eddie had escaped. And Peter’s job was to get Eddie out and to make sure he didn’t get lost or spotted. Or eat anyone… 

Although their plan was quickly put together, they were all positive it would work, and Ned made sure to knock on wood just to be sure. Once they were finished, Peter swung back to headquarters and back into his room ( he still lived with Aunt May, he just enjoyed feeling like he was a part of the team). He was climbing through the window when he spotted Tony on his bed.

“Uhh… Hey, Mr. Stark. What’re you doing here?” he squeaked. Peter had not anticipated this.

“Hey kid, I just figured I’d wait for you to get back,” he began, patting beside him on the bed for Peter to take a seat, “I just wanted to um, apologize to you. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s alright,” the boy slowly sat down. 

“I trust that you can take care of yourself, but Brock is very dangerous and very strong. I just don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you,” Tony sighed.

Peter could already feel the guilt seeping into his brain as he was about to do exactly what Mr. Stark is trusting him not to do, and it was making him twitchy and nervous, “right…”

The man gave a small nod before getting up, lightly patting Peter’s shoulder, “good talk, kid. How about tomorrow you head on home to your Aunt, you deserve to take a break.”

“Yeah, thanks, Mr. Stark,” Peter gave him a small smile.

Tony quickly returned the smile, though it was much warmer and honest than the boy’s… With that, he left the room, leaving Peter alone and feeling guilty.

_ “Yikes man, that was rough,” _ Ned said through the earpiece.

_ “Seriously,” _ Shuri added.

Spider-Man took a deep breath to calm his nerves and got up from his spot on the bed, “Mr. Brock better be the kind of guy I think he is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope y'all liked this one bc honestly some parts are kinda cringe smh  
> i'll try my best to get the next chapter out as quick as possible but i work a lot so it might be a couple weeks,,,,


	9. jailbreak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter, Ned, and Shuri work together to break Venom out of jail... and Deadpool comes into the picture.
> 
> “You seriously trust this guy to hide us from the fucking Avengers?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wdym it's been four months since i posted another chapter???? hahahahahahahahaha no it hasn't.  
> fr tho i have a full-time, 9-5 job and i really do just be too tired to write after work, but i was feeling motivated today and finally finished this chapter.

**What if we hit the door really,** **_really_ ** **hard??**

Eddie sighed, “I don’t think that’s going to work, V.”

The journalist was attempting to take a short nap to pass the time, but his symbiotic other had other plans; plans to escape. They weren’t exactly sure anything would really work, but they hadn’t really tried it yet so how would they know?

**We should try scratching it. Or running into it!**

“With what space?” he questioned, not even looking away from the ceiling.

Eddie had a point, and Venom could feel it. There was barely any space to run, they’d have to push off the wall.

**That’s it, Eddie! We will push off the wall using our feet!**

“What?”

But before he could even realize what Venom had said, it had already engulfed him in black goo. They shuffled over to the wall opposite of the door and clung to it, though the surface was so slippery they could barely stay stuck.

_ V, what the fuck are you doing??! We can’t try to fucking escape are you insane?! Put us down! _

**“Watch, Eddie, we will get us out of here,”** Venom licked its teeth as it moved most of its mass down to their legs then pushed off with all their strength before quickly covering their arms and head.

They shut their eyes, preparing for the impact when they heard a beeping sound and the glass door magically slid open, causing them to land on the floor.

_ What the fuck. What the fuck. _ Eddie breathed.

“Um… Mr. Brock?” 

They looked away from the floor to find none other than little Spider-Man standing in the doorway. Eddie wouldn’t have recognized the hero without Venom’s enhanced sense of smell. The symbiote gave Peter a confused look before realizing he was no threat to them and retreated under its host’s skin.

**Eddie! It’s that spider kid we saw on Twitter once!! This scrawny human is them?**

“Peter?” Eddie breathed, scrambling to his feet to glance between the open cell door and the teenager. “Wh--”

“I’m breaking you out!” Peter whispered and gave them a thumbs up, “so uh… just be quiet and follow me.”  
Eddie barely had enough time to process what all had just happened, and before he knew it, Venom was puppeteering his legs to follow Spider-Man down the hall and to an open window. Glancing out of it, they could see that it was night and they were no longer in San Francisco. Or at least not in a part they were familiar with. They also realized that they were very _very_ high up. Though Eddie will admit that the cool, fresh air did feel pretty nice on his skin. They all stood for a moment in silence while Peter quickly tapped something into his phone, earning him a look from Eddie.

“Now what? Don’t tell me you only planned this far…” the investigative reporter sighed, glancing down the hall to make sure no one was coming.

“Don’t worry, our plan is foolproof! We just have to jump and meet up with my friends.”

“What?” Eddie froze up, taking a quick look out the window and down at the busy street below. He let out a nervous laugh, “yeah, no way am I fucking jumping.”

**Just do it, pussy. Don’t you trust me to catch us** ?

“Oh it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that jumping out of a 60 story window isn’t exactly on my bucket list,” he anxiously moved away from the opening.

**Pussy.**

Peter opened his mouth to say something, though he quickly shut it and took a few steps down the hall, breathing out a small “oh shit.” Lightly clapping his hands together, he turned back to Eddie, “ok, so the original plan was for me to go with you and then come back here. But it looks like you’re going to have to go on your own. If Mr. Stark finds me gone, he’ll get real suspicious.” Peter unzipped his backpack and pulled out a piece of paper, nearly shoving it at Eddie’s chest. To which a black tendril shot out to catch the folded paper. “You’ll meet my friends there, they can be trusted, I promise.”

“Peter?” a voice called from somewhere deeper inside the building.

“See you later, Mr. Brock,” the young Spider-Man whispered before shoving Eddie out the window with a surprising amount of force.

The slip of paper Peter had given them had two things written on it; a restaurant and a street name. Thankfully, Eddie was rather familiar with the area, it just took Venom a little bit of poking through his memories. After they figured out where they were going, it didn’t take them long to reach their destination. Turns out the place in question was a 24/7 sandwich place, a shady one at that. However, along the way they may or may not have spotted an alarmingly familiar figure hiding in an alleyway, stalking them… Which they quickly decided to ignore and continue on their way, walking calmly despite Venom’s anxiousness.

Eddie flipped his hood up and stepped inside, he was immediately greeted by the tired employee behind the counter who didn’t even look up from his phone. He gave him a quick courtesy smile and a nod before glancing around the small restaurant. The only two customers were a college aged man slowly munching away at a foot long sandwich and a highschool kid sitting in front of a laptop with airpods in. And he had a feeling the high school kid was Peter’s friend. It was also the fact that he was now waving excitedly to Eddie and motioning for him to sit.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” he grumbled under his breath.

**If we find that he isn’t a friend can we eat him?**

“No, we are not eating a kid,” Eddie sighed, reluctantly making his way over to the kid and sitting in the seat across from him, folding his arms over his chest.

“So you’re Peter’s friend?”

He nodded enthusiastically, “my name is Ned, I’m like Peter’s ‘guy in the chair!’”

**Am I your ‘guy in the chair?’**

“More like the ‘guy up in my business’,” Eddie shot back, shaking his head quickly when Ned’s expression went from excited to confused and hurt. “Sorry, not you. I’m uh talking to--,” he motioned to his head.

“Ohhh!! The symbiote!” Ned no longer looked sad anymore. “Man, that’s so cool that you can talk to it like that.”

“Yeah, I guess,” the reporter sighed with a small shrug, “so, Peter said ‘friends’, meaning more. Who else is here?” 

“Oh! Right,” Ned pulled his airpods from his ears and shoved them into the case before turning the laptop to show Eddie. On the screen was a young girl with a knowing smile, she must’ve been only a couple years older than Ned and Peter. Eddie remembered that he once read an article about her. From what he found, she’s one of the smartest people alive. Even Tony Stark admitted that she was smarter than him. 

“You’re Shuri, the younger sister of King T’Challa,” Eddie mused, leaning forward, “but why bother breaking me out??” 

_ “Well, it’s pretty simple, Mr. Brock. The Avengers are incredibly stupid when it comes to making allies,” _ she snickered. 

Eddie thought for a moment, “I mean, we did try to attack them.”

_ “Sure, but only because they attacked you first, right? You were just doing what you needed to do to survive. If you didn’t eat people, you’d die. You also didn’t have the resources to create an extract of phenethylamine, and if you did attempt to contact the Avengers they probably would’ve captured you anyway.” _

**We like this girl.**

Eddie hummed in agreement and leaned back in his seat, “Alright then… And What's this ‘foolproof’ plan that Peter has? You’ve broken us out, great. Now what? We can’t exactly run away, we’ve already tried that and they found us pretty fast.”

**We can eat while we can.**

Eddie ignored it. But he had to admit that they were pretty hungry. Maybe they  _ could _ eat the kid… With a second thought he decided that they would not eat the kid. He pursed his lips and froze for a short moment. Venom was making its thoughts his own. Although that was mostly how it is all the time. They barely even know who is who anymore unless they’re actually trying to have a conversation.

“We uh… We aren’t sure,” Ned said with a nervous laugh.

**“Wh** at?!” Eddie roared, a bit of Venom coming out in their voice. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath to calm himself down. “So you just thought you could break a human-eating alien out of the Avengers headquarters with the bare minimum of a plan???”

Ned gave a small shrug while Shuri gave him an annoyed (and slightly offended) look. It was clear the two of them were embarrassed, it practically fell off the boy in waves.

_“We do have a plan, but that plan was also made six hours ago. We weren’t able to get that far. I would send a ship to pick you up but that’s not exactly the stealthiest escape. Once the Avengers realized you’ve escaped they might come to us to help, and then when we get to the States, I’d be able to sneak you onto the ship and take you back to Wakanda,”_ Shuri explained quick, folding her arms over her chest, “we just don’t know where to put you now.”  
“Great, just great,” the reporter groaned. This is what he gets for trusting a bunch of high schoolers.

There was a long moment of silence, each thinking about what to do now and where to put Eddie and Venom. They knew if they let them go now, Venom will want to eat and that’ll be a dead give away to their location.

“I know!” Ned exclaimed, jumping from his seat, causing the two other people in the sandwich shop to turn their heads to him. The boy quickly sat back down and leaned across the table to whisper to Eddie. “We can take you to Deadpool. It’s the last place they’ll look.”

“Wh-- Deadpool?? Who the fuck is that?” Eddie frowned slightly. 

_ “Ugh, please, we are  _ **_not_ ** _ taking them to that weirdo,” _ the girl groaned, leaning back in her seat at the desk she sat at.

Eddie rolled his eyes, “oh come on, he can’t be  _ that _ weird. Have you even seen us?”

“Hola mi amigos!” an eccentric masked man exclaimed as he threw open his apartment door. He stood for a moment and stared between Eddie and Ned, tapping his chin thoughtfully, “ummmm, I’m guessing you're not the guys that are delivering my pizza? Hey wait a minute, do I know you?” Deadpool squinted at Ned.

“Uh yeah, I’m Spider-Man’s best friend, we’ve met like… five times.”

Deadpool let out an exaggerated gasp and stood straight, pressing his hands to the sides of his cheeks, “O.M.G. I remember now! Aw hey wait, I thought  _ I _ was Spider-Man’s best friend.”

“You seriously trust this guy to hide us from the fucking Avengers?” Eddie grumbled to Ned.

**He** **_is_ ** **weird like they said, Eddie. And he smells like a Taco Bell bathroom.**

“How the fuck do you even know what that smells like?” the man grumbled with a disgusted look, though Venom was right.

“Whoa whoa whoa wait. I’m hiding who from what now????” Deadpool’s frown was easily seen through his mask, it almost made Eddie wonder if it was a part of his skin.

**We should eat him and find out.** Venom growled, its hunger getting close to unbearable now. He could almost feel Venom licking its fanged teeth.

“I uh, We were wondering if you could hide Mr. Brock and his alien symbiote from the Avengers. We just broke them out of the Avengers Headquarters…” Ned explained softly, almost worried that the Avengers were already listening in.

Pool let out a shocked and excited gasp, “no fucking way! Oh my god, Venom, I’m like, a  _ huge _ fan. I loved you in Separation Anxiety, sooooo cute.”

“How did you--.”

“Peter tells us to just ignore him,” Ned whispered before turning back to the merc with a mouth. “So, will you hide them, Mr. Pool?”

“Hmm… sure. But, what do I get in return? Like am I getting paid or somethin’?” ‘Pool questioned loudly, clearly not caring if he was heard or not, unlike Ned. 

The boy thought for a moment, “Mr. Stark gives Pe-- Spider-Man an allowance every month. So… he’ll give you his allowance for three months.”

“How much is the allowance?”

“$300 a month?” Ned answered.

“Holy mother of-- that’s like my rent right there, what the fudgesicles?!” Deadpool gasped out, quickly stepping to the side to allow the others to walk into his shitty ass apartment, which smelled even worse than him. But at least he’s now willing to house Eddie and his hungry other.

**We should steal that money. Could use it to buy more chocolate.**

“We are not stealing the money,” the reporter sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “We have money from the Life Foundation.”

“Aww you even say ‘we’ like in the comics too!! You know I have body mates too. Sort of. I call them the yellow and white boxes. Oh and not to mention the audience,” Deadpool turned to stare at seemingly nothing, giving the air a flirtatious wave and blowing it a kiss. “Don’t think I forgot about you, cuties! Hope you’re enjoying this little bit of me that you didn’t ask for in this fanfic!”

**We have comics, Eddie?**

Eddie knitted his brows and took a seat on the rot-smelling couch beside Ned, leaning over to whisper, “are you sure he’s fine to stay with? Hiding on our own seems like a pretty good idea right now…”

“Don’t worry, you can trust him,” Ned promised with a nod, “he’s like, Spider-Man’s biggest fan, he wouldn’t betray him for any amount of money. Also he’s like, the last place Mr. Stark would check. Mr. Pool hates the Avengers and the Avengers hate him. So they all kinda keep their distance.”

“I can see why…” he sighed, leaning away from Ned as they watched Deadpool continue talking to the air. Or as he calls it, the ‘audience.’ 

“So, kiddo, how long do I have the house them for?? I’m a very busy man,” the mercenary clapped his hands together, finally turning back towards Ned and Eddie.

“Busy doing what? Doing drugs and watching soap operas?” Eddie snapped, obviously having taken note of the episode of Grey’s Anatomy playing on the tv and the suspicious bag of white powder sitting on the coffee table… He eyed Deadpool, leaning back into the couch with his arms folded over his chest. His eyes shifted over to Ned for a split second, who gave him a quick shake of the head, letting him know that he shouldn’t have asked that question.

“You’re only half right about that, Edward! And well, just like you, I kill and get rid of  _ horrible _ people that deserve to die. Except I get paid for it. It’s not the greatest job in the world but it  _ does _ pay the bills. And on my off days I like to follow Spidey around, isn’t he the cutest?? I could just pinch his little cheeks. Ugh, too bad he’s only 17 though, otherwise I would  _ definitely _ tap that ass,” Deadpool exclaimed with a laugh, waving his hands around in the air dramatically, “and when I’m not following Spidey, yes, I’m finding new ways to kill myself, watching shitty soap operas, and doing drugs.”

“Yeesh… It’s no wonder Stark fucking hates you,” Eddie grumbled, already getting annoyed with the mans colorful personality.

**We do not like him. Let’s eat him.**

“Well, we both kill bad guys… So at least we have that in common,” the reporter reluctantly replied to his other, “plus Stark won’t even think about looking for us here.”

“Anndddd an endless supply of food, I self heal like, really really fast,” Deadpool added in, standing proudly with his hands on his hips. “Plus I don’t feel pain soooooo…”

Ned’s brows furrowed and he squinted at him, “you don’t feel pain? But last week me and Spider-Man watched you stub your toe and you-- I think you were crying??”

“Theatrics, kiddo. Gotta let everyone know I’m human, am I right Edward?” the uncomfortably strange man chuckled giving Eddie a thumbs up, expecting him to have the same enthusiasm, however he returned the gesture with pursed lips and a small shake of the head. Deadpool sighed with disappointment and turned to the kid. “So anyways, how long am I holding these lovebirds for?” 

“Just until our friend Shuri can find an excuse to fly here, and then we’ll sneak Eddie and Venom onto the ship and take them back to Wakanda,” he explained, earning him a confused look from Eddie.

**** Venom screeched inside their shared head, causing the man to flinch.

“A plane?” he blurted out, clearly alarmed.

“Peter!” Tony called, rushing down the hall toward the spider child’s room, only to find him as soon as he turned the corner, “what’re you doing here?!”

“Mr. Stark!” Peter squeaked, nearly jumping up onto the ceiling. “Oh uh umm… Walking?” he answered sheepishly, hoping Tony wouldn’t notice the open window further down the hall behind them. “What’s wrong??”

The billionaire let out an exasperated sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, “somehow, someone  _ hacked _ into our system and set Brock and his head-eating parasite free. And now they’re out-- probably eating people!” 

“Oh! Really?? I hadn’t really noticed,” he began, “could you see which way they went on the cameras?”

“No,” Tony said with a frustrated shake of his head, “they turned the cameras off too…”

“Wow that’s um… that’s pretty wack. So we have no idea who hacked into the system??” Peter questioned nervously.

The man began walking down the hall, motioning for Peter to follow him, “nope, but we’re hoping Brock doesn’t remember New York that well, we’re sending everyone out to look for him right now.”

“What? Shouldn’t we wait until morning?? They’re probably out trying to find a place to hide, and they’re most likely super tired,” he suggested quietly, picking up his pace to walk beside Tony.

“The more time we waste the more time Brock has to kill and eat someone and I’m not letting that happen. I want you to stay here, if you get hurt I wouldn’t forgive myself...” Tony stopped at Peter’s bedroom door and turned to the boy with a sigh.

“But I can help!” Peter hurriedly said, “I know New York like the back of my hand!’

Iron Man gave a small nod in understanding, “I know, but your spidey-sense doesn’t work with him. Who knows what will happen if he decides to attack you. So you stay here,” he explained softy before taking off once more to get ready to hunt Brock down. “I’ve already sent drones out, and hopefully that’ll be enough to find them… And don’t even think about leaving, I’ll know if you do,” he called as he disappeared around a corner. 

Peter bit his lip, he hadn’t anticipated everyone realizing they were gone this fast, which honestly he should’ve expected this, seeing as they broke out of a building full of superheroes. 

The young spider kid grumbled swears under his breath as he entered his room, pulling his phone out of his backpack to call Ned. Fortunately the phone didn’t ring more than three seconds before it was answered.

“Ned?” 

_ “Hey Peter,” _ the other teen said tiredly.

“Are you guys safe??” Peter questioned.

Ned paused for a moment before replying, _ “uhhh yeah, I guess you can say that… We’re at Wade’s so I don’t know if you’d really consider us safe buttttt…” _

“Dude, I’m serious!” He hissed into the phone, “they found out Mr. Brock is missing! They’ve already sent drones out and everything.” 

_ “OH! Oh my god really?? I mean, we did break them out of Avengers headquarters. But wow that was fast… Ok ok, so then yes we are safe,” _ Ned answered, causing Peter to let out the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding in.

He gave a small nod, “good. Ok, now Ned you head home, if they see you out they’ll definitely know something is up…”

_ “Oh yikes yeah, I’ll call an Uber or somethin’,” _ Ned agreed, _ “also Wade is 100% on board with housing Mr. Brock!!”  _

“Good, I thought he would be. Now I gotta get going, I need to figure out their gameplan. I’ll text ya later Ned, let me know when you get home!” 

_ “I will, stay safe Pe-- I mean, uh, Spider-Man,” _ his best friend let out a nervous laugh before hanging up.

Peter let out a soft sigh and tossed his phone onto his bed, he’d yet heard anything from Shuri yet but he’s assuming she’s trying to come up with an excuse to come to New York.

“Breaking an alien out of jail is a lot harder than I thought it would be…” he grumbled, taking a seat at his desk, knowing that at the moment he can’t do anything but wait...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if it's noticeable but i didn't spellcheck the last like,,,, 3/4th of this chapter bc i'm tired and i'm going to get breakfast with my s/o tomorrow so i gotta wake up early  
> also i noticed that the walmart boogey man hasn't appeared in a hot minute so i'll prolly add him in the next chapter 😳🤚🏻


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